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Fractal dimension and directional analysis of elastic and collagen fibers arrangement in un-sectioned arterial tissues affected by atherosclerosis and aging.

Structural proteins like collagen and elastin are major constituents of the extracellular matrix (ECM). Extracellular matrix degradation and remodeling in diseases significantly impact the micro-organization of these structural proteins. Therefore, tracking the changes of collagen and elastin fiber's morphological features within ECM impacted by disease progression could provide a valuable insight of pathological processes such as tissue fibrosis and atherosclerosis. Benefitted from its intrinsic high-resolution imaging power and superior biochemical specificity, nonlinear optical microscopy (NLOM) is capable of providing information critical to the understanding of ECM remodeling. In this study, alterations of structural fibrillar proteins, such as collagen and elastin in arteries excised from atherosclerotic rabbits were assessed by the combination of NLOM images and textural analysis methods such as fractal dimension (FD) and directional analysis (DA). FD and DA were tested for their performance in tracking the changes of extracellular elastin and fibrillar collagen remodeling resulting from atherosclerosis progression/aging. Although other methods of image analysis to study the organization of elastin and collagen structures have been reported, the simplified calculations of FD and DA presented in this work proves that they are viable strategies for extracting and analyzing fiber-related morphology from disease-impacted tissues. Furthermore, this study also demonstrated the potential utility of FD and DA in studying ECM remodeling caused by other pathological processes such as respiratory diseases, several skin conditions or even cancer.

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