Prediction of Articular Cartilage Markers with Multispectral Imaging

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating joint disease in which early microstructural and compositional changes in articular cartilage (AC) are challenging to detect with current diagnostic tools. We hypothesized that multispectral imaging (MSI) could capture optical signatures that predict key AC properties. To test this, we developed and evaluated an MSI-based approach for estimating tissue thickness, proteoglycan (PG) content, collagen fiber orientation, and cell morphological properties (area and circularity). Reflectance images of bovine patellar AC were acquired using a custom-built MSI system operating at six wavelengths (550-970 nm), and machine learning models were trained to predict the targeted markers. The models yielded reliable estimates for AC thickness, whereas for PG content, collagen fiber orientation, and cell circularity, they achieved moderate accuracy. This work suggests that MSI holds promise as a label-free tool for characterizing AC and detecting early degenerative changes.