Real-time, noninvasive optical coherence tomography of cross-sectional living cell-sheets in vitro and in vivo

摘要

Cell sheet technology has a history of application in regenerating various tissues, having successfully completed several clinical trials using autologous cell sheets. Tomographic analysis of living cell sheets is an important tool in the field of cell sheet-based regenerative medicine and tissue engineering to analyze the inner structure of layered living cells. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is commonly used in ophthalmology to noninvasively analyze cross-sections of target tissues at high resolution. This study used OCT to conduct real-time, non-invasive analysis of living cell sheet cross sections. OCT showed the internal structure of cell sheets in tomographic images synthesized with backscatter signals from inside the living cell sheet without invasion or damage.