Fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging to improve diagnosis of normal and tumoral cytological pancreatic cells.

We investigated a simple and effective diagnostic method for normal and malignant pancreatic cells using fluorescence emission of endogenous and exogenous molecules in cytological cells. Fluorescence imaging was performed to assess the spectral properties and the spatial distribution of the fluorescence emitted by pancreatic cells. The results revealed quite different fluorescence distributions between tumor cells, characterized by perimembrane fluorescence localization, and normal cells exhibiting an intracellular fluorescence. This was not caused by differences in the fluorescence emission of the endogenous fluorophores NAD(P)H or porphyrins but by various localizations of the exogenous molecules (the EA 50 Papanicolaou stain).