The translation of engineered tissues into clinic requires robust monitoring of tissue development, both in vitro and in vivo. Traditional methods are destructive, time- and cost- inefficient, and do not allow time-lapse measurements from the same sample or animal. This study reports on the ability of time-resolved fluorescence and ultrasound measurements for non-destructive characterization of explanted tissue engineered vascular grafts. Results show that TRFS and FLIm are able to assess alterations in luminal composition namely elastin, collagen and cellular content via changes in fluorescence lifetime values between normal and grafted tissue. These observations are complemented by structural changes observed in UBM pertaining to graft integration and neo-intimal and neo-medial thickening. These results encourage the future application of a catheter-based technique that combines these imaging modalities for nondestructive characterization of vascular grafts in vivo.

Date Published: 26 February 2015
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 9303, Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics XI, 930335 (26 February 2015);

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9303:
Photonic Therapeutics and Diagnostics XI
Hyun Wook Kang; Brian J. F. Wong M.D.; Melissa C. Skala; Bernard Choi; Guillermo J. Tearney M.D.; Andreas Mandelis; Nikiforos Kollias; Kenton W. Gregory M.D.; Mark W. Dewhirst D.V.M.; Justus F. Ilgner M.D.; Alfred Nuttal; Haishan Zeng; Laura Marcu; Claus-Peter Richter, Editor(s)