The 3-D collagen structure of equine articular cartilage, characterized using variable-angle-of-incidence polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography

Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography has been used to spatially map the birefringence of equine articular cartilage. Images obtained in the vicinity of visible osteoarthritic lesions display a characteristic disruption of the regular birefringence bands shown by normal cartilage. We also note that significant (e.g. ×2) variations in the apparent birefringence of samples taken from young (18 month) animals that otherwise appear visually homogeneous are found over spatial scales of a few millimeters. We suggest that whilst some of this variation may be due to changes in the intrinsic birefringence of the tissue, the 3-D orientation of the collagen fibers relative to the plane of the joint surface should also be taken into account. We propose a method based on multiple angles of illumination to determine the polar angle of the collagen fibers.

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