Quantitative analysis of fibrosis formation on the microcapsule surface with the use of picro-sirius red staining, polarized light microscopy, and digital image analysis.
Transplantation of microencapsulated cells shows potential to treat a variety of diseases. To improve the quality of microcapsules, efficient methods need to be established and standardized for the evaluation of biocompatibility of microcapsules. To this end, a microscopical method was developed to analyze quantitatively the degree of fibrotic overgrowth (FO), which serves as the index of biocompatibility. In this method, sections were stained with picro-sirius red and illuminated with a polarized light microscope. The images were digitized with the use of a computer-video system in which collagenous content was depicted by gray levels 1 to 255. Both the area of collagen and the thickness of FO were examined. The ratio of Type I/Type III collagen and the thickness were used as indexes of the degree of FO. The data showed that the ratio of Type I/Type III collagen and the thickness increased with time, and FO was not significant 4 weeks after transplantation. In comparison, this new method is more efficient to evaluate FO.
Zhang
Hua'an
H
Laboratory of Biomedical Material Engineering, Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 457 Zhongshan Road, Dalian 116023, People's Republic of China.
Sun
Lin
L
Wang
Wei
W
Ma
Xiaojun
X
D000818:Animals; D001391:Azo Compounds; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002214:Capsules; D002460:Cell Line; D003094:Collagen / Q000378:metabolism; D004396:Coloring Agents; D005355:Fibrosis; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D051379:Mice; D008859:Microscopy, Polarization; D013194:Staining and Labeling; D013499:Surface Properties; D019737:Transplants
D001391:Azo Compounds; D001672:Biocompatible Materials; D002214:Capsules; D004396:Coloring Agents; C009798:C.I. direct red 80; D003094:Collagen