KEYWORDS: Collagen, Second-harmonic generation, Tissues, Breast, Tumors, Multiphoton microscopy, Breast cancer, Cancer, In vivo imaging, Imaging systems
Intraductal carcinoma is a precancerous lesion of the breast and the immediate precursor of invasive ductal carcinoma. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) was used to monitor the progression from intraductal carcinoma to invasive ductal carcinoma, which can improve early detection of precursor lesions and halt progression to invasive neoplastic disease. It was found that MPM has the capability to reveal the qualitative changes in features of cells, structure of basement membranes, and architecture of collagens during the development from intraductal carcinoma to invasive ductal carcinoma, as well as the quantitative alterations in nuclear area, circle length of basement membrane, and collagen density. Combined with intra-fiberoptic ductoscopy or transdermal biopsy needle, MPM has the potential to provide immediate histological diagnosis of tumor progression in the field of breast carcinoma.
Clinical imaging techniques for diagnosing breast cancer mainly include X-ray mammography, ultrasound, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which have respective drawbacks. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has become a potentially attractive optical technique to bridge the current gap in clinical utility. In this paper, MPM was used to image normal and ductal cancerous breast tissues, based on two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second harmonic generation (SHG). Our results showed that MPM has the ability to exhibit the microstructure of normal breast tissue, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) lesions at the molecular level comparable to histopathology. These findings indicate that, with integration of MPM into currently accepted clinical imaging system, it has the potential to make a real-time histological diagnosis of mammary ductal carcinoma in vivo.
Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) imaging of collagen plays a key role in noninvasive diagnosis of human tissue. During the experiment, we observed an interesting phenomenon which two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) signal of collagen in human invasive ductal carcinoma of breast tissue becomes much weaker than the normal breast tissue, but the second harmonic generation (SHG) signal of collagen does not get an obvious change . In order to explain the phenomena,this paper emphasizes on the intensity of TPEF and SHG signal from collagen in human invasive ductal carcinoma of breast tissues and normal breast tissue. Further, we respectively obtain the intensity spectral information from collagen in the above two tissues with all parameter unaltered. Our quantitative results show that the intensity of TPEF from collagen in human invasive ductal carcinoma of breast tissue is much lower than the intensity of TPEF from collagen in normal breast tissue. According to the theoretic analysis, it was concluded that the intensity of TPEF declined due to the reduction of the quantum yield when the collagen was intruded by cancer cells. However, the invasion of cancer cells has no effect on decisive factor of SHG. Our theoretical analysis brings more detailed information about intensity of SHG and TPEF from collagen in the above two tissues.
During the proliferation of breast cancer, the desmoplastic can evoke a fibrosis response by invading healthy tissue. Fibrotic focus (FF) in invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) of the breast had been reported to be associated with significantly poorer survival rate than IDC without FF. As an important prognosis indicator, it’s difficult to obtain the exact fibrotic information from traditional detection method such as mammography. Multiphoton imaging based on two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF) and second-harmonic generation (SHG) has been recently employed for microscopic examination of unstained tissue. In this study, multiphoton microscopy (MPM) was used to image the fibrotic focus in invasive ductal carcinoma tissue. The morphology and distribution of collagen in fibrotic focus can be demonstrated by the SHG signal. Variation of collagen between IDC with and without FF will be examined and further characterized, which may be greatly related to the metastasis of breast cancer. Our result suggested that the MPM can be efficient in identifying and locating the fibrotic focus in IDC. Combining with the pathology analysis and other detecting methods, MPM owns potential in becoming an advanced histological tool for detecting the fibrotic focus in IDC and collecting prognosis information, which may guide the subsequent surgery option and therapy procedure for patients.
Breast-conserving surgery has become an important way of surgical treatment for breast cancer worldwide nowadays. Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has the ability to noninvasively visualize tissue architectures at the cellular level using intrinsic fluorescent molecules in biological tissues without the need for fluorescent dye. In this study, MPM is used to image the microstructures of terminal duct lobular unit (TDLU), invasive ductal carcinoma and the boundary region between normal and cancerous breast tissues. Our study demonstrates that MPM has the ability to not only reveal the morphological changes of the cuboidal epithelium, basement membrane and interlobular stroma but also identify the boundary between normal breast tissue and invasive ductal carcinoma, which correspond well to the Hematoxylin and Eosin (H and E) images. Predictably, MPM can monitor surgical margins in real time and provide considerable accuracy for resection of breast cancerous tissues intraoperatively. With the development of miniature, real-time MPM imaging technology, MPM should have great application prospects during breast-conserving surgery.
Fibroadenoma (FA) is the most common benign tumor of the female breast and several studies have reported that women with it have increased risk of breast cancer. While the ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is a very early form of breast cancer. Thus, early detections of FA and DCIS are critical for improving breast tumor outcome and survival. In this paper, we use multiphoton microscopy (MPM) to obtain the high-contrast images of fresh, unfixed, unstained human breast specimens (normal breast tissue, FA and DCIS). Our results show that MPM has the ability to identify the characteristics of FA and DCIS including changes of duct architecture and collagen morphology. These results are consistent with the histological results. With the advancement of MPM, the technique has potential ability to serve as a real-time noninvasive imaging tool for early detection of breast tumor.
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