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Feasibility of dual‐contrast fluorescence imaging of pathological breast tissues
Author(s) -
Mitrou Androniki,
Feng Xin,
Khan Ashraf,
Yaroslavsky An.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of biophotonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.877
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1864-0648
pISSN - 1864-063X
DOI - 10.1002/jbio.202100007
Subject(s) - fluorescence , fluorescence microscope , cytoplasm , chemistry , cell , cancer cell , in vivo , flow cytometry , pathology , biophysics , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , cancer , biochemistry , medicine , physics , quantum mechanics , genetics
The combination of intravital dye, methylene blue (MB), with molecular cancer marker, pH low insertion peptide (pHLIP) conjugated with fluorescent Alexa532 (Alexa532‐pHLIP), was evaluated for enhancing contrast of pathological breast tissue ex vivo. Fresh, thick breast specimens were stained sequentially with Alexa532‐pHLIP and aqueous MB and imaged using dual‐channel fluorescence microscopy. MB and Alexa532‐pHLIP accumulated in the nuclei and cytoplasm of cancer cells, respectively. MB also stained nuclei of normal cells. Some Alexa532‐pHLIP fluorescence emission was detected from connective tissue and benign cell membranes. Overall, Alexa532‐pHLIP showed high affinity to cancer, while MB highlighted tissue morphology. The results indicate that MB and Alexa532‐pHLIP provide complementary information and show promise for the detection of breast cancer.