He Jinping, Wang Nan, Tsurui Hiromichi, Kato Masashi, Iida Machiko, Kobayashi Takayoshi
National Astronomical Observatories/Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics &Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 188 Bancang Street, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210042, China.
Advanced Ultrafast Laser Research Center, University of Electro-Communications, 1-5-1 Chofugaoka, Chofu, Tokyo 182-8585, Japan.
Sci Rep. 2016 Jul 22;6:30209. doi: 10.1038/srep30209.
Skin cancer is one of the most common cancers. Melanoma accounts for less than 2% of skin cancer cases but causes a large majority of skin cancer deaths. Early detection of malignant melanoma remains the key factor in saving lives. However, the melanoma diagnosis is still clinically challenging. Here, we developed a confocal photothermal microscope for noninvasive, label-free, three-dimensional imaging of melanoma. The axial resolution of confocal photothermal microscope is ~3 times higher than that of commonly used photothermal microscope. Three-dimensional microscopic distribution of melanin in pigmented lesions of mouse skin is obtained directly with this setup. Classic morphometric and fractal analysis of sixteen 3D images (eight for benign melanoma and eight for malignant) showed a capability of pathology of melanoma: melanin density and size become larger during the melanoma growth, and the melanin distribution also becomes more chaotic and unregulated. The results suggested new options for monitoring the melanoma growth and also for the melanoma diagnosis.
皮肤癌是最常见的癌症之一。黑色素瘤占皮肤癌病例的比例不到2%，但导致了大部分皮肤癌死亡。早期发现恶性黑色素瘤仍然是挽救生命的关键因素。然而，黑色素瘤的诊断在临床上仍然具有挑战性。在此，我们开发了一种共聚焦光热显微镜，用于对黑色素瘤进行无创、无标记的三维成像。共聚焦光热显微镜的轴向分辨率比常用的光热显微镜高约3倍。利用该装置可直接获得小鼠皮肤色素沉着病变中黑色素的三维微观分布。对16幅三维图像（8幅良性黑色素瘤图像和8幅恶性黑色素瘤图像）进行经典形态计量学和分形分析，显示了黑色素瘤的病理特征：在黑色素瘤生长过程中，黑色素密度和大小变大，黑色素分布也变得更加混乱和无规律。这些结果为监测黑色素瘤的生长以及黑色素瘤的诊断提供了新的选择。
