Label-free whole-colony imaging and metabolic analysis of metastatic pancreatic cancer by an autoregulating flexible optical system
Binglin Shen, Junshuai Yan, Shiqi Wang, Feifan Zhou, Yihua Zhao, Rui Hu, Junle Qu, Liwei Liu
Abstract
Cancer metastasis is a Gordian knot for tumor diagnosis and therapy. Many studies have demonstrated that metastatic processes are inevitably affected by the tumor microenvironment. Histopathology is used universally as the gold standard for cancer diagnosis despite the lengthy preparation process and invasiveness. Methods: Here, we introduced a supercontinuum and super-wide-tuning integrated multimodal platform, which combines the confocal, nonlinear and fluorescence lifetime microscopy with autoregulations, for label-free evaluation of fresh tissue and pathological sections. Based on various automated tunable lasers, synchronized and self-adjusting components and eight fast switching detection channels, the system features fast, large-field and subcellular-scale imaging of exogenous and endogenous fluorophores, nonlinear coherent scattering and lifetime contrast.