Analysis of Vascular Architecture and Parenchymal Damage Generated by Reduced Blood Perfusion in Decellularized Porcine Kidneys Using a Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix

Abstract

There is no cure for kidney failure, but a bioartificial kidney may help address this global problem. Decellularization provides a promising platform to generate transplantable organs. However, maintaining a viable vasculature is a significant challenge to this technology. Even though angiography offers a valuable way to assess scaffold structure/function, subtle changes are overlooked by specialists. In recent years, various image analysis methods in radiology have been suggested to detect and identify subtle changes in tissue architecture. The aim of our research was to apply one of these methods based on a gray level co-occurrence matrix (Topalovic et al.) computational algorithm in the analysis of vascular architecture and parenchymal damage generated by hypoperfusion in decellularized porcine. Perfusion decellularization of the whole porcine kidneys was performed using previously established protocols. We analyzed and compared angiograms of kidneys subjected to pathophysiological arterial perfusion of whole blood. For regions of interest Santos et al. covering kidney medulla and the main elements of the vascular network, five major GLCM features were calculated: angular second moment as an indicator of textural uniformity, inverse difference moment as an indicator of textural homogeneity, GLCM contrast, GLCM correlation, and sum variance of the co-occurrence matrix. In addition to GLCM, we also performed discrete wavelet transform analysis of angiogram ROIs by calculating the respective wavelet coefficient energies using high and low-pass filtering. We report statistically significant changes in GLCM and wavelet features, including the reduction of the angular second moment and inverse difference moment, indicating a substantial rise in angiogram textural heterogeneity. Our findings suggest that the GLCM method can be successfully used as an addition to conventional fluoroscopic angiography analyses of micro/macrovascular integrity following in vitro blood perfusion to investigate scaffold integrity. This approach is the first step toward developing an automated network that can detect changes in the decellularized vasculature.

Gray level co-occurrence matrix and wavelet analyses reveal discrete changes in proximal tubule cell nuclei after mild acute kidney injury

“…In our previous articles, we applied similar GLCM approaches to analyze alterations to the renal vascular architecture 22 , highlighting its potential application in the characterization of whole organ scaffolds 23 that can be generated for bioarti cial kidney development 24 . Using this technique, We also examined cell nuclei after the damage induced by exposure to a sublethal toxic dose of ethanol 12 .…”

Fluorescent Dextran Applications in Renal Intravital Microscopy

“…Efforts in tissue engineering have heightened the desire for alternatives such as the bioartificial kidney [69][70][71][72]. Whole organ decellularization has been described as one of the most promising ways of constructing a bioartificial kidney [73].…”

Decellularized blood vessel development: Current state-of-the-art and future directions

“…Triton X-100 is one of the most widely used nonionic surfactants for lysing cells to extract proteins and other cellular organelles or permeabilize the living cell membrane for transfection. The nonionic surfactant Triton X-100 is frequently utilized to remove the remnant SDS in the perfusion process of organs ( Corridon, 2021 ; Pantic et al, 2022 ). This surfactant has a disruptive effect on the polar head group as well as hydrogen bonds present within the lipid bilayer, altering the compactness and integrity of the lipid membrane.…”