Hyperspectral Tracking of In Situ Tissue Regeneration and Remodeling in a Rationally Designed Biological Scaffold in a Rat Subcutaneous Model

A remote and noncontact tissue regeneration tracking technique is of great significance in regenerative medicine for monitoring cell ingrowth, revascularization and remodeling of the implanted biological scaffold. This study has explored the bimodal hyperspectral imaging system to study quantitatively the action of a scaffold-induced tissue regeneration in the rat subcutaneous model, and verified the findings by the traditional histopathological analysis. The study reveals a pattern of rapid host cell ingrowth and revascularization within 2-3 weeks which is then followed by a slower scaffold remodeling process in a rationally designed biological scaffold. The hyperspectral tracking of tissue regeneration and remodeling process overcomes the limitations of the traditional destructive and time-consuming histopathology and provides a novel analytical tool for investigating in situ tissue formation in regenerative medicine. Data of this work are publicly available at: https://github.com/Zhiao1111/Hyperspectral-Tissue-Regeneration-and-Remodeling-Reference-Dataset.