Automated epidermal thickness quantification of human skin equivalents using optical coherence tomography.

Human skin equivalents (HSEs) are models of human skin. They are used to study skin development, diseases, wound healing and toxicity. The gold standard of analysis is histological sectioning, which both limits three-dimensional assessment of the tissue and prevents live culture monitoring. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has previously been used to visualize human skin and models. OCT is noninvasive and enables real-time volumetric analysis of HSEs. The techniques presented here demonstrate the use of OCT imaging to track HSE epidermal thickness over 8 weeks of culture and improve upon previous processing of OCT images by presenting algorithms that automatically quantify epidermal thickness. Through volumetric automated analysis, HSE morphology can be accurately tracked in real time.