The uterine cervix undergoes extensive remodeling during pregnancy to facilitate successful childbirth. The extracellular matrix (ECM) plays a pivotal role in this remodeling process, affecting cervical biomechanics and its ability to maintain structural integrity throughout gestation. However, early softening of the uterine cervix due to accelerated remodeling of the cervix ECM leads to Preterm Birth. In this study, we performed Mueller matrix polarization imaging of mice cervix at different pregnancy time points and analyzed polarization parameters to assess the associated cervical collagen remodeling.
Our research focuses on the depth-resolved Mueller matrix polarization assessment of the ECM structure evolution of mice cervix sections, spanning from external OS to the internal OS of the cervical region, at different gestation stages. Our statistical analysis of the MM results yields valuable information on the variation in the micro-structural organization of the cervical ECM across depths.
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