Second harmonic generation imaging in tissue engineering and cartilage pathologies

The second harmonic generation from collagen is highly sensitive to what extent collagen molecules are ordered into fibrils as the SHG signal is approximately proportional to the square of the fibril thickness. This can be problematic when interpreting SHG images as thick fibers are much brighter than thinner fibers such that quanti fication of the amount of collagen present is difficult. On the other hand SHG is therefore also a very sensitive probe to determine whether collagen have assembled into fibrils or are still dissolved as individual collagen molecules. This information is not available from standard histology or immunohistochemical techniques. The degree for fibrillation is an essential component for proper tissue function. We will present the usefulness of SHG imaging in tissue engineering of cartilage as well as cartilage related pathologies. When engineering cartilage it is essential to have the appropriate culturing conditions which cause the collagen molecules to assemble into fibrils. By employing SHG imaging we have studied how cell seeding densities affect the fibrillation of collagen molecules. Furthermore we have used SHG to study pathologies in developing cartilage in a porcine model. In both cases SHG reveals information which is not visible in conventional histology or immunohistochemistry.