University of Gothenburg, Biomedical Photonics Group, Department of Chemistry and Molecular Biology,, Sweden.
University of Gothenburg, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Department of Dermatology and Venereology,, Sweden.
J Biomed Opt. 2020 Mar;25(7):1-8. doi: 10.1117/1.JBO.25.7.071204.
Sentinel lymph node (SLN) biopsy is an important method for metastasis staging in, e.g., patients with malignant melanoma. Tools enabling prompt histopathological analysis are expected to facilitate diagnostics; optical technologies are explored for this purpose.
The objective of this exploratory study was to investigate the potential of adopting multiphoton laser scanning microscopy (MPM) together with fluorescence lifetime analysis (FLIM) for the examination of lymph node (LN) tissue ex vivo.
Five LN tissue samples (three metastasis positive and two negative) were acquired from a biobank comprising tissues from melanoma patients. Tissues were deparaffinized and subjected to MPM-FLIM using an experimental MPM set-up equipped with a time correlated single photon counting module enabling FLIM.
The data confirm that morphological features similar to conventional histology were observed. In addition, FLIM analysis revealed elevated morphological contrast, particularly for discriminating between metastatic cells, lymphocytes, and erythrocytes.
Taken together, the results from this investigation show promise for adopting MPM-FLIM in the context of SLN diagnostics and encourage further translational studies on fresh tissue samples.
前哨淋巴结 (SLN) 活检是恶性黑色素瘤等患者转移分期的重要方法。能够实现快速组织病理学分析的工具有望促进诊断；为此目的正在探索光学技术。
本探索性研究的目的是调查采用多光子激光扫描显微镜 (MPM) 结合荧光寿命分析 (FLIM) 检查离体淋巴结 (LN) 组织的潜力。
从包含黑色素瘤患者组织的生物库中获取了五个 LN 组织样本（三个转移阳性和两个转移阴性）。组织脱石蜡并用配备有时间相关单光子计数模块的实验 MPM 设置进行 MPM-FLIM，该模块能够进行 FLIM。
数据证实观察到与常规组织学相似的形态特征。此外，FLIM 分析显示出更高的形态对比度，特别是用于区分转移性细胞、淋巴细胞和红细胞。
总之，这项研究的结果表明在 SLN 诊断中采用 MPM-FLIM 具有前景，并鼓励对新鲜组织样本进行进一步的转化研究。
