Polychromatic Polarization Microscopy Differentiates Collagen Fiber Signatures in Benign Pancreatic Tissue and Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

Abstract

The orientation of collagen fibers in relation to malignant epithelium is known to carry prognostic information in a variety of tissues. The data are the strongest for breast and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. However, information inherent in collagen fiber topology in malignant tissues remains untapped in daily surgical pathology practice, largely because collagen fibers within areas of desmoplasia cannot be resolved with standard diagnostic microscopy. The methodologies used to visualize collagen fiber orientation are either of insufficient resolution to consistently capture collagen fiber topology or require resources in time and money that do not fit into the daily surgical pathology workflow. Polychromatic polarization microscopy has the potential to bring collagen topology to the attention of pathologists during their routine work. It has been demonstrated to be equivalent to the gold standard methodology used to research collagen, second harmonic generation. We use polychromatic polarization microscopy to visualize and describe the differences in collagen topology in normal pancreas, chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with a standard microscope, using hematoxylin and eosin-stained sections. In the process, we propose a lexicon with which to describe the morphologic characteristics of collagen in benign and malignant pancreatic tissues.

Keywords: collagen; desmoplasia; pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; polychromatic polarization microscopy.