Here the authors utilized the photoacoustic imaging (PA) capabilities of the Vevo LAZR-X to screen donor kidneys for fibrosis prior to implanting them into chronic kidney diseased animal models and patients.
The authors found that:
o PA imaging non-invasively quantifies whole kidney fibrotic burden in mice, and cortical fibrosis in pig and human kidneys, with outstanding accuracy and speed.
o 3D PA imaging exhibits sufficiently high resolution to capture intra-renal variations in collagen content.
o PA imaging can be performed in a setting that mimics human kidney transplantation, suggesting the potential for rapid clinical translation.
o Taken together, the data suggest that PA collagen imaging is a major advance in fibrosis quantification that could have widespread pre-clinical and clinical impact.