Abstract
Inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s Disease (CD) and Ulcerative Colitis (UC), are characterized by inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Early diagnoses are critical in the determination of an effective treatment. Current methods of tissue assessment remain two-dimensional and limited by lack of information under the surface of the mucosal layer. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a noninvasive, label-free, volumetric imaging modality which can visualize tissue structures down to the micrometer scale. Previous study has explored OCT as a method for endoscopic and benchtop assessment of colonic tissues. Here, we explore OCT in an ex vivo capacity to visualize features in IBD. Samples from human subjects with normal (not inflamed), UC, and CD diagnoses were imaged, where OCT was able to differentiate between normal ileal and colonic tissue and those from patients with CD or UC. Our study shows the promise of higher-resolution OCT to visualize both small details and overall structures in three-dimensions, informing development of future technologies.
Data availability
Data underlying the results presented in this paper may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank the Washington University Digestive Diseases Research Core Center (DDRCC) (NIDDK P30 DK052574) for their work in providing H&E stains. This work was funded by NIH R21EB032684 and R01EB025209 (CZ), and a start-up fund from Washington University in St. Louis. Abigail Matt received support from the NSF GRFP. Parakkal Deepak is supported by a Litwin grant, IBD Plexus of the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, the Helmsley Charitable trust and the Leo & Carean Goss Crohn’s Disease Research Fund.
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Study design and conceptualization: PD, CZ, CM. Funding: PD, CZ. Imaging: AM and YL. Data processing. AM, YL, AS. Data Analysis: AM, YL, UJ, CM, PD, CZ. Sample collection: BDN, KH. Manuscript writing and editing: AM, YL, CM, CZ, PD, with inputs from all authors.
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P.D. has received research support under a sponsored research agreement unrelated to the data in the paper and/or consulting from AbbVie, Arena Pharmaceuticals, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Janssen, Pfizer, Prometheus Biosciences, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Roche Genentech, Scipher Medicine, Fresenius Kabi, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Landos Pharmaceuticals, Iterative scopes and CorEvitas, LLC. U.J. has received research support unrelated to this manuscript from Boehringer Ingelheim. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.
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Matt, A., Li, Y., Song, A. et al. Three-dimensional ex-vivo visualization of normal and inflamed small intestine and colonic tissue using optical coherence tomography. Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-46293-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-46293-4
