Measurement of muscle disease by quantitative second-harmonic generation imaging.
Determining the health of muscle cells by in vivo imaging could impact the diagnosis and monitoring of a large number of congenital and acquired muscular or cardiac disorders. However, currently used technologies are hampered by insufficient resolution, lack of specificity, or invasiveness. We have combined intrinsic optical second-harmonic generation from sarcomeric myosin with a novel mathematical treatment of striation pattern analysis, to obtain measures of muscle contractile integrity that correlate strongly with the neuromuscular health of mice suffering from genetic, acquired, and age-related decline in skeletal muscle function. Analysis of biopsies from a pilot group of human volunteers suggests a similar power in quantifying sarcopenic changes in muscle integrity. These results provide the first strong evidence that quantitative image analysis of sarcomere pattern can be correlated with physiological function, and they invite the application of SHG imaging in clinical practice, either in biopsy samples or via microendoscopy.
Plotnikov
Sergey V
SV
University of Connecticut Health Center, Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Farmington, Connecticut 06030, USA.
Kenny
Anne M
AM
Walsh
Stephen J
SJ
Zubrowski
Beata
B
Joseph
Cherian
C
Scranton
Victoria L
VL
Kuchel
George A
GA
Dauser
Deborah
D
Xu
Manshan
M
Pilbeam
Carol C
CC
Adams
Douglas J
DJ
Dougherty
Robert P
RP
Campagnola
Paul J
PJ
Mohler
William A
WA
D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001185:Artificial Intelligence; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*; D009135:Muscular Diseases / Q000473:pathology*; D010363:Pattern Recognition, Automated / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012518:Sarcomeres / Q000473:pathology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index