Development of novel light sources to enable non-invasive imaging of cells in 3D tissue constructs and grafts.

我们已经开发出在实验室中培养患者自身皮肤细胞的方法，以生产出可用于大面积烧伤患者皮肤移植的皮肤片，以及用于修复糖尿病患者和老年患者的慢性伤口。尽管这些方法是成功的，并且正在临床应用，但我们没有可靠的技术来评估活细胞发育成结构合理的皮肤的情况——所有可靠的方法都涉及杀死细胞。光学相干断层扫描（OCT）是一种相对较新的方法，可以产生活组织的横截面图像，与组织学家检查的死组织切片相媲美。在光学相干层析成像上可以看到的细节量是由光源控制的。要产生精细的图像，需要昂贵而复杂的激光器。我们在设计和制造高性能固态光源方面有丰富的经验。在这个项目中，我们将设计和制造新的光源，将它们构建到我们现有的光学相干断层扫描设备中，并通过将OCT图像与传统的死亡组织组织学图像进行比较来测试它们。最终的结果将是一个光学成像系统，可以用来跟踪实验室中活细胞的生长，也可以检查移植到病人身上时细胞的行为。

We have developed methods for growing a patient's own skin cells in the laboratory to produce sheets of skin that can be used for skin grafting on patients with extensive burns, and for repairing chronic wounds in diabetic and elderly patients. Although the methods are successful, and are being used clinically, we have no reliable technique for assessing how well the living cells are developing into properly structured skin - all the reliable methods involve killing the cells. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a relatively new method of producing cross-sectional images of living tissue that are comparable to the sections of dead tissue that the histologist examines. The amount of detail that can be seen on the optical coherence tomography images is controlled by the light source. Expensive and complex lasers are needed to produce finely detailed images. We have a great deal of experience in designing and manufacturing very high performance solid state light sources. In this project, we will design and make novel light sources, build them into our existing optical coherence tomography equipment, and test them by comparing OCT images with conventional histological images of dead tissue. The end result will be an optical imaging system that can be used to follow the growth of the live cells in the laboratory, and also to check the behaviour of the cells when the graft has been applied to the patient.