Analyzing three-dimensional ultrastructure of human cervical tissue using optical coherence tomography.
Biomed Opt Express
; 6(4): 1090-108, 2015 Apr 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-25908997
ABSTRACT
During pregnancy, the uterine cervix is the mechanical barrier that prevents delivery of a fetus. The underlying cervical collagen ultrastructure, which influences the overall mechanical properties of the cervix, plays a role in maintaining a successful pregnancy until term. Yet, not much is known about this collagen ultrastructure in pregnant and nonpregnant human tissue. We used optical coherence tomography to investigate the directionality and dispersion of collagen fiber bundles in the human cervix. An image analysis tool has been developed, combining a stitching method with a fiber orientation measurement, to study axially sliced cervix samples. This tool was used to analyze the ultrastructure of ex-vivo pregnant and non-pregnant hysterectomy tissue samples taken at the internal os, which is the region of the cervix adjacent to the uterus. With this tool, directionality maps of collagen fiber bundles and dispersion of collagen fiber orientation were analyzed. It was found that that the overall preferred directionality of the collagen fibers for both the nonpregnant and pregnant samples were circling around the inner cervical canal. Pregnant samples showed greater dispersion than non-pregnant samples. Lastly, we observed regional differences in collagen fiber dispersion. Fibers closer to the inner canal showed more dispersion than the fibers on the radial edges.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Language:
En
Journal:
Biomed Opt Express
Year:
2015
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Estados Unidos