Polarized Light Microscopy for Quantitative Assessment of Sarcomere‐Scale Structural Order in Cardiac Tissue
Gennadii Piavchenko, Artem Venediktov, Zoya Shamitko, Karina Urazova, Mariia Obelchakova, Evelina Khabarova, Anton Ershov, Natalia Kartashkina, Viktoria Grikh, Valerii Smirnov, Galina Ramenskaya, Alexander Yatskovskiy, Igor MeglinskiABSTRACT
Polarization‐resolved imaging provides a powerful, label‐free means of visualizing anisotropic structural order in biological tissue, yet its quantitative exploitation remains limited in routine microscopy. Here, we present a polarization‐resolved imaging approach based on polarized light microscopy (PLM) that enables automated, quantitative extraction of sarcomere‐scale structural metrics from unstained cardiac tissue sections. Using experimental rat models of acute cardiorespiratory arrest as controlled test systems, we demonstrate that polarization‐derived intensity profiles encode reproducible information on sarcomere length and band composition, with distinct patterns of structural compression observed across experimental conditions. Image‐derived measurements were validated against conventional histological and immunohistochemical staining, highlighting the complementary value of polarization contrast for rapid, staining‐free assessment of tissue anisotropy. Rather than addressing diagnostic specificity, this proof‐of‐concept study establishes PLM as a scalable quantitative imaging modality for polarization‐resolved analysis of hierarchical structural order in biological tissue, with potential integration into multimodal imaging workflows in biomedical research.