title: Development of a bioengineered tissue model and its application in the investigation of the depth selectivity of polarization gating.
abstract: Understanding the propagation of polarized light in tissue is crucial for a number of biomedical optics applications. Here we report the development of a bioengineered connective tissue model fabricated by the combination of scaffolding and cross-linking techniques to study light transport in biological tissue. It demonstrates great similarity to real connective tissue in its optical properties as well as microarchitecture. Moreover, the optical properties of the model can be reproducibly controlled. As an example, we report the utilization of this model to study the effect of epithelium and the underlying connective tissue on the depth selectivity of polarization gating.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208, USA. yangliu@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Young L
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Vadim
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Backman
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry*; D003238:Connective Tissue / Q000502:physiology* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D008859:Microscopy, Polarization / Q000379:methods; D008954:Models, Biological; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D051381:Rats; D012031:Refractometry / Q000379:methods*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*