Morpho-chemistry and functionality of diseased biological tissues

Year: 2014

Authors: Lange M., Cicchi R., Pavone FS.

Autors Affiliation: European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy (LENS), University of Florence, Via Nello Carrara, 1 – 50019, Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;

National Institute of Optics, National Research Council (INO-CNR), Largo Enrico Fermi 6 – 50125, Florence, Italy;

Abstract: Heart and cardiovascular diseases are one of the most common in the world, in particular – arthrosclerosis. The aim of the research is to distinguish pathological and healthy tissue regions in biological samples, in this case – to distinguish collagen and lipid rich regions within the arterial wall. In the work a specific combination of such methods are used: FLIM and SHG in order to evaluate the biological tissue morphology and functionality, so that this research could give a contribution for creating a new biological tissue imaging standard in the closest future. During the study the most appropriate parameter for fluorescence lifetime decay was chosen in order to evaluate lifetime decay parameters and the isotropy of the arterial wall and deposition, using statistical methods FFT and GLCM. The research gives a contribution or the future investigations for evaluating lipid properties when it can de-attach from the arterial wall and cause clotting in the blood vessel or even a stroke.

Conference title: Ultrafast Nonlinear Imaging and Spectroscopy
Place: San Diego, US

KeyWords: Blood vessels; Diseases; Fluorescence imaging; Harmonic generation; Image analysis; Nonlinear optics, Atherosclerosis; Biological samples; Biological tissues; Cardio-vascular disease; Decay parameters; Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy; Fluorescence lifetimes; Second harmonic generation microscopies (SHG), Tissue
DOI: 10.1117/12.2060813