Quantification of glucose diffusion in arterial tissues by using optical coherence tomography

Several investigations suggest that the early stages of atherosclerosis are modulated by the selective permeability of the vascular tissue to pro-inflammatory molecules of different molecular weights. Up to date, a few experiments have been performed to study the permeability of arterial tissue to different molecules. This is primarily due to an absence of an experimental technique capable of depth-resolved, accurate and sensitive assessment of arterial permeability. In this paper, we report our pilot results on nondestructive quantification of glucose diffusion in animal arteries in vitro by using optical coherence tomography (OCT) technique. Permeability of glucose in animal's aorta was estimated to be 1.43 ± 0.24 × 10^-5 cm/sec from five independent experiments. Obtained results suggest capability of OCT technique for highly sensitive, accurate, and nondestructive monitoring and quantification of agents' diffusion in vascular tissues. A graph is presented. OCT signal slope as a function of time recorded from pig aorta during glucose diffusion experiment.