High Resolution Imaging and Modeling of Collagen Architecture Alterations in Ovarian Cancer and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

Many human diseases including all cancers, fibroses, cardiovascular disease and connective tissue disorders are characterized by alterations in the collagen organization relative to normal tissues. We have developed Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) microscope tools to selectively and specifically probe all levels of collagen architecture. We successfully classified six types of ovarian tumors based on collagen fiber morphology. We also used this set of SHG analyses to probe structural changes in idiopathic pulmonary fibroses (IPF). We found analogous changes in all levels of collagen architecture in IPF. We developed an SHG image-based fabrication approach to create scaffolds to study the effects of collagen remodeling on cell-matrix interactions. We have also developed a machine learning approach using generative adversarial networks (GANSs) to optimize scaffold design.