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Cho S, Kim K, Kim T, Park H, Kim JM, Lee S, Kang Y, Chang K, Kim C. High-Contrast Imaging of Cholesterol Crystals in Rabbit Arteries Ex Vivo Using LED-Based Polarization Microscopy. SENSORS 2018; 18:s18041258. [PMID: 29671778 PMCID: PMC5948913 DOI: 10.3390/s18041258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Revised: 04/13/2018] [Accepted: 04/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Detection of cholesterol crystals (Chcs) in atherosclerosis disease is important for understanding the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis. Polarization microscopy (PM) has been in use traditionally for detecting Chcs, but they have difficulty in distinguishing Chcs with other crystalline materials in tissue, such as collagens. Thus, most studies using PM have been limited to studying cell-level samples. Although various methods have been proposed to detect Chcs with high specificity, most of them have low signal-to-noise ratios, a high system construction cost, and are difficult to operate due to a complex protocol. To address these problems, we have developed a simple and inexpensive universal serial bus (USB) PM system equipped with a 5700 K cool-white light-emitting diode (LED). In this system, Chcs are shown in a light blue color while collagen is shown in a yellow color. More importantly, the contrast between Chcs and collagens is improved by a factor of 2.3 under an aqueous condition in these PM images. These imaging results are well-matched with the ones acquired with two-photon microscopy (TPM). The system can visualize the features of atherosclerosis that cannot be visualized by the conventional hematoxylin and eosin and oil-red-o staining methods. Thus, we believe that this simple USB PM system can be widely used to identify Chcs in atherosclerosis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seonghee Cho
- School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
| | - Kyungmin Kim
- Department of Creative IT Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
| | - Taehoon Kim
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
| | - Hyoeun Park
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
| | - Jin-Moo Kim
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
| | - SeungHoon Lee
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
| | - YeonSu Kang
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
| | - Kiyuk Chang
- Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul 06591, Korea.
| | - Chulhong Kim
- School of Interdisciplinary Bioscience and Bioengineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
- Department of Creative IT Engineering, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Pohang 37673, Korea.
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