Open AccessIdentifying crossing collagen fibers in human corneal tissues using pSHG images
Author(s) -
Mehdi Alizadeh,
David Merino,
Giuseppe Lombardo,
Marco Lombardo,
Rita Mencucci,
Masood Ghotbi,
Pablo Loza-Álvarez
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.10.003875
Subject(s) - collagen fiber , stroma , microscopy , optics , cornea , collagen fibril , computer science , materials science , biomedical engineering , anatomy , biology , pathology , physics , medicine , immunohistochemistry
Polarization sensitive second harmonic generation (pSHG) microscopy has been used previously to characterize the structure of collagen fibers in corneal samples. Due to the typical organization of the corneal stroma, the information that pSHG provides may be misleading in points where two different collagen fiber bundles orient along different direction crossings. Here, a simulation that illustrates the problem is presented, along with a novel method that is capable of identifying these crossing points. These results can be used to improve the evaluation of corneal collagen structure, and it has been applied to analyze pSHG data acquired from healthy and keratoconic human corneal samples.