Fig. 6: Methodological approach for bladder stiffness characterization.
From: Micro-mechanical fingerprints of the rat bladder change in actinic cystitis and tumor presence
Sample preparation protocol and pipeline of experiments. First, ultrasound (US) imaging is performed in order to determine the physiological OCT cryoprotectant bladder instillation volume. Animals are then sacrificed, the cryoprotectant is instilled into the bladder through a catheter and the bladder is then explanted and frozen. Cryosections are prepared and microindentation experiments are performed on the tissue slides both by AFM and nanoindenter. Afterwards, histology analysis was performed to confirm the location of the bladder anatomical layers.
