Photoacoustic microscopy for real-time monitoring of near-infrared optical absorbers inside biological tissue.

SIGNIFICANCE

We developed a high-speed optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) system using a high-repetition-rate supercontinuum (SC) light source and a two-axes Galvano scanner. The OR-PAM system enabled real-time imaging of optical absorbers inside biological tissues with excellent excitation wavelength tunability.

AIM

In the near-infrared (NIR) wavelength range, high-speed OR-PAM faces limitations due to the lack of wavelength-tunable light sources. Our study aimed to enable high-speed OR-PAM imaging of various optical absorbers, including NIR contrast agents, and validate the performance of high-speed OR-PAM in the detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs).

APPROACH

A high-repetition nanosecond pulsed SC light source was used for OR-PAM. The excitation wavelength was adjusted by bandpass filtering of broadband light pulses produced by an SC light source. Phantom and experiments were performed to detect tumor cells stained with an NIR contrast agent within flowing blood samples.

RESULTS

The newly developed high-speed OR-PAM successfully detected stained cells both in the phantom and . The phantom experiment confirmed the correlation between the tumor cell detection rate and tumor cell concentration in the blood sample.

CONCLUSIONS

The high-speed OR-PAM effectively detected stained tumor cells. Combining high-speed OR-PAM with molecular probes that stain tumor cells enables CTC detection.