Quantitative Ultrasound Imaging for the Differentiation between Fresh and Decellularized Mouse Kidneys

Decellularization is a technique that permits the removal of cells from intact organs while preserving the extracellular matrix (ECM). It has many applications in various fields such as regenerative medicine and tissue engineering. This study aims to differentiate between fresh and decellularized kidneys using quantitative ultrasound (QUS) parameters. Spectral parameters were extracted from the linear fit of the power spectrum of raw radio frequency data and parametric maps were generated corresponding to the regions of interest, from which four textural parameters were estimated. The results of this study indicated that decellularization affects both spectral and textural parameters. The Mid Band Fit mean and contrast were found to be the best spectral and textural predictors of kidney decellularization, respectively.