Collagen Fiber Imaging
Collagen Fiber Imaging - Related Videos
06:07
Preparing Porcine Eyes for Confocal Reflectance Microscopy to Visualize the Vitreous Collagen Fiber Network
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2025
This method visualizes the native structure of collagen fibers in the vitreous body using confocal reflectance microscopy.
07:25
Collagen Hydrogels
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2023
Collagen is another widely used biomaterial that has found popularity in commercial applications, such as photography. Collagen has more recently been used in tissue engineering applications, by creating hydrogels that provide structure to engineered tissue. This video introduces collagen as a biomaterial, demonstrates how it is harvested from porcine skin, and shows how the material is used to create a hydrogel for tissue engineering applications. Finally, several applications of the material...
07:03
Imaging Denatured Collagen Strands In vivo and Ex vivo via Photo-triggered Hybridization of Caged Collagen Mimetic Peptides
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Cited by 18 •
2014
This procedure demonstrates in vivo near IR fluorescence imaging of collagen remodeling activities in mice as well as ex vivo staining of collagens in tissue sections using caged collagen mimetic peptides that can be photo-triggered to hybridize with denatured collagen strands.
09:33
3D Imaging of PDL Collagen Fibers during Orthodontic Tooth Movement in Mandibular Murine Model
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Cited by 3 •
2021
We present a protocol for generating orthodontic tooth movement in mice and methods for 3D visualization of the collagen fibers and blood vessels of periodontal ligament without sectioning.
07:12
Microengineering 3D Collagen Hydrogels with Long-Range Fiber Alignment
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Cited by 3 •
2022
This protocol demonstrates the use of a microfluidic channel with changing geometry along the fluid flow direction to generate extensional strain (stretching) to align fibers in a 3D collagen hydrogel (<250 µm in thickness). The resulting alignment extends across several millimeters and is influenced by the extensional strain rate.
FAQs
Second-harmonic generation occurs when pulsed laser light interacts with collagen’s non-centrosymmetric, highly ordered structure. The interaction generates a label-free optical signal that allows organized fibers to be resolved within tissue. Because the signal depends on structural organization rather than an added stain, this approach is useful for examining collagen architecture while preserving information about its native arrangement.
Analysis can quantify three-dimensional organization, fiber orientation, density, alignment, thickness, and network remodeling. These measurements convert visual patterns into structural descriptors that can be compared across tissues or biological conditions. Changes in these features may indicate altered extracellular-matrix architecture and help researchers connect collagen organization with tissue mechanics, development, healing, fibrosis, or tumor progression.
Second-harmonic generation emphasizes the organized optical structure of collagen, whereas fluorescence and electron microscopy provide complementary information at molecular or ultrastructural levels. Using these approaches together can relate visible fiber architecture to other molecular features or fine structural details. This comparison helps researchers interpret whether a change reflects collagen-network organization, associated molecular patterns, or ultrastructural remodeling.
A typical workflow illuminates biological tissue with pulsed laser light when using second-harmonic generation microscopy, captures the resulting collagen signal, and resolves the fiber network in three dimensions. Researchers then measure orientation, density, alignment, thickness, or remodeling. The resulting structural dataset can be compared among developmental, healing, fibrotic, or tumor-related tissue states.
The approach is useful when researchers need to relate extracellular-matrix architecture to biological changes. Applications described for collagen imaging include studying tissue mechanics, development, wound healing, fibrosis, and tumor progression. In each setting, examining fiber arrangement and network changes can provide structural context for how tissues develop, repair themselves, or undergo disease-associated remodeling.
Changes in fiber alignment, thickness, density, and overall network organization provide measurable evidence of extracellular-matrix remodeling. These structural signatures can be examined alongside biological conditions to investigate how cells interact with and modify their surrounding matrix. In disease research, the same measurements may help identify architecture associated with fibrosis or tumor progression and distinguish altered tissue states.