Technologies

Background

Skin diseases and degeneration is related to sun exposure, working environment and personal habits, which can be observed in the change of internal structure of skin. Collagen, which is the major component of the dermal structure, is an important factor related to dermal changes.

It is critical to inspect collagen structure and quantitatively define status of skin. Histopathological and immune-histochemical studies are commonly used for diagnosing diseases and evaluating dermal changes. But these techniques require biopsy, which may cause scarring and infection and cannot be performed either in vivo or in real time. Collagen content is also a good marker for assessing clinical efficacy of non-ablative fractional treatment (for skin rejuvenation).

Technology

UMass Lowell researcher, Dr. Anna Yaroslavsky, has developed a polarization-enhanced wide-field reflectance imaging device and methods to image the collagen structure and dermal changes. This approach isin vivoand allows rapid assessment of large skin areas with optical sectioning capability.

Comparison of collagen structure revealed by in vivo noninvasive polarization reflectance macro-imaging (UML technology) and ex vivo reflectance confocal imaging

Thisin vivoimaging method provides good resolution with large field of view of 3 cm × 3 cm. with a good visibility to collagen bundles and detailed dermal structures.

References

Professor Anna Yaroslavsky has been conducting research into biomedical optics and medical applications of light for more than twenty years. Major focus of her laboratory is the development of technologies and methods for real-time, noninvasive, and accurate detection of human pathology. She has produced several patents in the medical imaging field and been successful in executing projects oriented towards development into commercial products.