Photoinduced cell morphology alterations quantified within adipose tissues by spectral optical coherence tomography.

Morphological changes of the adipose tissue at phototreatment are studied in vitro using optical coherence tomography. The 200 to 600 μm fat tissue slices are used in the experiments. The observed change in the tissue structure was associated with fat cell lipolysis and destruction caused by the photodynamic effect. It is found that overall heating of a sample from room to physiological temperature leads to deeper and faster morphology tissue changes if other processing conditions are kept constant. These data support the hypothesis that photodynamic/photothermal treatment induces fat cell lipolysis during some period after treatment.