TY - JOUR
T1 - Non-destructive morphological observation of anatomical growth process in Haemaphysalis Longicornis tick specimens using optical coherence tomography
AU - Lee, Junsoo
AU - Wijesinghe, Ruchire Eranga
AU - Jeon, Mansik
AU - Kim, Jeehyun
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 - The authors. Published by IOS Press.
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - BACKGROUND: Ticks are known as the representatives of hematophagous arachnids. They cause various tick-borne diseases, such as severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and Lyme disease. To understand the mechanism of virus infection caused by ticks, morphology for the anatomical characteristics of crucial organs has been widely studied in acarological fields. The conventional methods used for tick observation have inevitable limitations. Dissection is the standard method to obtain the morphological information, and complex microscopy methods were utilized alternatively. OBJECTIVE: The study goal is to obtain the morphological information of ticks in different growth stages non-invasively. METHODS: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is employed to acquire structural images of various internal organs without damage for observing the growth process of larva, nymph, and adult in Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks in real-time. RESULTS: Various internal organs, such as salivary glands, rectal sac, genital aperture, and anus, were well-visualized by the OCT enface and cross-sectional images, and the variation in size of these organs in each growth stage was compared quantitatively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the obtained results, we confirmed the potential feasibility of OCT as a non-destructive real-time tool for morphological studies in acarology. Further research using OCT for acarological applications can include monitoring the growth process of ticks in terms of structural changes and investigating morphological differences between normal and virus-infected tick specimens.
AB - BACKGROUND: Ticks are known as the representatives of hematophagous arachnids. They cause various tick-borne diseases, such as severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) and Lyme disease. To understand the mechanism of virus infection caused by ticks, morphology for the anatomical characteristics of crucial organs has been widely studied in acarological fields. The conventional methods used for tick observation have inevitable limitations. Dissection is the standard method to obtain the morphological information, and complex microscopy methods were utilized alternatively. OBJECTIVE: The study goal is to obtain the morphological information of ticks in different growth stages non-invasively. METHODS: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is employed to acquire structural images of various internal organs without damage for observing the growth process of larva, nymph, and adult in Haemaphysalis longicornis ticks in real-time. RESULTS: Various internal organs, such as salivary glands, rectal sac, genital aperture, and anus, were well-visualized by the OCT enface and cross-sectional images, and the variation in size of these organs in each growth stage was compared quantitatively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the obtained results, we confirmed the potential feasibility of OCT as a non-destructive real-time tool for morphological studies in acarology. Further research using OCT for acarological applications can include monitoring the growth process of ticks in terms of structural changes and investigating morphological differences between normal and virus-infected tick specimens.
KW - acarology
KW - Haemaphysalis longicornis
KW - optical coherence tomography
KW - Optical imaging
KW - tick
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85126072569&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3233/THC-228006
DO - 10.3233/THC-228006
M3 - Article
C2 - 35124584
AN - SCOPUS:85126072569
SN - 0928-7329
VL - 30
SP - S61-S70
JO - Technology and Health Care
JF - Technology and Health Care
IS - S1
ER -