High-resolution optical imaging and spectroscopy instrument for real-time characterization of soft tissue constructs

Traumatic injuries, especially in the combat setting, are often associated with significant tissue loss and morbidity. Immediate reconstruction is often needed to prevent further morbidity and degradation of soldier health status. Novel regenerative medicine approaches, including grafting of engineered tissue have the potential to address this problem. However, the absence of adequate tools for testing tissue morphology and viability before grafting makes this process very difficult. Thus, there is an urgent need for a technology that will enable real time, noninvasive, three-dimensional quantitative assessment of growing ex vivo engineered tissue to assess cell state and viability, microstructure, and overall tissue state and maturity for transplantation. In a Phase I study, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) in collaboration with the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), investigated the use of combined Raman spectroscopy-high resolution optical imaging for in vitro characterization of engineered tissue constructs. The Phase I study has successfully demonstrated the suitability of this approach for nondestructive characterization of tissue constructs. As a result, an advanced instrument, suitable for research use at MGH, Center for Regenerative Medicine is proposed to be developed and fully evaluated in a Phase II study.