Clinical Usefulness of Optical Skin Biopsy

Traditional biopsy requires the removal, fixation, and staining of tissues from the human body. Its procedure is invasive and painful. Non-invasive in vivo optical biopsy is thus required, which should provide non-invasive, highly penetrative, three-dimensional (3D) imaging with sub-micron spatial resolution. Optical biopsy based on scanning two-photon fluorescence microscopy (TPFM) is a good method for biopsy of skin due to its high lateral resolution, low out-of-focus damage, and intrinsic three-dimensional (3D) section capability. However current technology still presents several limitations including low penetration depth, in-focus cell damages, and multi-photon phototoxicity due to high optical intensity in the 800 nm wavelength region, and toxicity if exogenous fluorescence markers were required. We study the harmonics optical biopsy of a human skin sample using a femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser centered at 1230 nm. Higher harmonics generation is known to leave no energy deposition to the interacted matters due to their energy-conservation characteristic. This energy-conservation characteristic provides the "noninvasive" nature desirable for clinical imaging. In our study, we will evaluate the clinical applications of optical skin biopsy using harmonic generation microscopy.

Traditional biopsy requires the removal, fixation, and staining of tissues from the human body. Its procedure is invasive and painful. Non-invasive in vivo optical biopsy is thus required, which should provide non-invasive, highly penetrative, three-dimensional (3D) imaging with sub-micron spatial resolution. Optical biopsy based on scanning two-photon fluorescence microscopy (TPFM) is a good method for biopsy of skin due to its high lateral resolution, low out-of-focus damage, and intrinsic three-dimensional (3D) section capability. However current technology still presents several limitations including low penetration depth, in-focus cell damages, and multi-photon phototoxicity due to high optical intensity in the 800 nm wavelength region, and toxicity if exogenous fluorescence markers were required. We study the harmonics optical biopsy of a human skin sample using a femtosecond Cr:forsterite laser centered at 1230 nm. Higher harmonics generation is known to leave no energy deposition to the interacted matters due to their energy-conservation characteristic. This energy-conservation characteristic provides the "noninvasive" nature desirable for clinical imaging. In our study, we will evaluate the clinical applications of optical skin biopsy using harmonic generation microscopy.