Polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography for monitoring wound healing

We used the polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) to monitor the wound healing process. In this study, wound sites were created on each ear of rabbits. For each subject, one site was not treated, the second site was treated with sphingosyl phosphoryl choline (SPC), which is known to promote healing, and the last was administered with tetra acetyl phytosphingo sine (TAPS) that negatively affect the healing process. Each site was examined with a PS-OCT system and conventional histopathology. Our results suggest that PS-OCT may be a useful tool that can visualize collagen fiber regeneration during the healing process and the drug effect was clearly visible.