Elastic moduli of collagen gels can be predicted from two-dimensional confocal microscopy

We quantitatively compare data obtained from imaging two-dimensional slices of three-dimensional unlabeled and fluorescently labeled collagen gels with confocal reflectance microscopy (CRM) and/or confocal fluorescence microscopy (CFM). Different network structures are obtained by assembling the gels over a range of concentrations at various temperatures. Comparison between CRM and CFM shows that the techniques are not equally sensitive to details of network structure, with CFM displaying higher fidelity in imaging fibers parallel to the optical axis. Comparison of CRM of plain and labeled collagen gels shows that labeling itself induces changes in gel structure, chiefly through inhibition of fibril bundling. Despite these differences, image analyses carried out on two-dimensional CFM and CRM slices of collagen gels reveal identical trends in structural parameters as a function of collagen concentration and gelation temperature. Fibril diameter approximated from either CRM or CFM is in good accord with that determined via electron microscopy. Two-dimensional CRM images are used to show that semiflexible polymer theory can relate network structural properties to elastic modulus successfully. For networks containing bundled fibrils, it is shown that average structural diameter, rather than fibril diameter, is the length scale that sets the magnitude of the gel elastic modulus.