Three-dimensional volume analysis of vasculature in engineered tissues

Three-dimensional textural and volumetric image analysis holds great potential in understanding the image data produced by multi-photon microscopy. In this paper, an algorithm that quantitatively analyzes the texture and the morphology of vasculature in engineered tissues is proposed. The investigated 3D artificial tissues consist of Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells (HUVEC) embedded in collagen exposed to two regimes of ultrasound standing wave fields under different pressure conditions. Textural features were evaluated using the normalized Gray-Scale Cooccurrence Matrix (GLCM) combined with Gray-Level Run Length Matrix (GLRLM) analysis. To minimize error resulting from any possible volume rotation and to provide a comprehensive textural analysis, an averaged version of nine GLCM and GLRLM orientations is used. To evaluate volumetric features, an automatic threshold using the gray level mean value is utilized. Results show that our analysis is able to differentiate among the exposed samples, due to morphological changes induced by the standing wave fields. Furthermore, we demonstrate that providing more textural parameters than what is currently being reported in the literature, enhances the quantitative understanding of the heterogeneity of artificial tissues.