Collagen reorganization in cartilage under strain probed by polarization sensitive second harmonic generation microscopy.

ABSTRACT: Type II collagen fibril diameters in cartilage are beneath the diffraction limit of optical microscopy, which makes the assessment of collagen organization very challenging. In this work we use polarization sensitive second harmonic generation (P-SHG) imaging to map collagen organization in articular cartilage, addressing in particular its behaviour under strain and changes which occur in osteoarthritis. P-SHG yields two parameters, molecular order and orientation, which provide measures of the degree of organization both at the molecular scale (below the diffraction limit) and above a few hundred nanometres (at the image pixel size). P-SHG clearly demonstrates the zonal collagen architecture and reveals differences in the structure of the fibrils around chondrocytes. P-SHG also reveals su

SUBMITTER: Mansfield JC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6364654 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature