Reconstruction of thin fluorophore-filled capillaries in thick scattering medium using fluorescence diffuse optical tomography within the diffusion approximation

ABSTRACT Current eorts in tissue engineering target the growth of 3D volumes of tissue cultures in bioreactor conditions.Fluorescence optical tomography has the potential to monitor cells viability and tissue growth non-destructivelydirectly within the bioreactor via bio-molecular ”uorescent labelling strategies. We currently work on devel-oping the imaging instrumentation for tissue cultures in bioreactor conditions. Previously, we localized in 3Dthin ”uorescent-labelled capillaries in a cylindrically shaped bioreactor phantom containing a diusive mediumwith our time-of-”ight localization technique. Here, we present our “rst reconstruction results of the spatialdistribution of ”uorophore concentrations for labelled capillaries embedded in a bioreactor phantom.Keywords: Diuse optical tomography, tissue engineering, bioreactors, ”uorescence, tissue cultures 1. INTRODUCTION A promising application of ”uorescence diuse optical tomography (fDOT) is in the emerging “eld of tissueengineering (TE). Current eorts in TE aim at growing 3D volumes of tissue cultures on the order of cubiccentimeters in bioreactor conditions.