Abstract. Skin wounds heal when a series of cell lineages are triggered, followed by collagen deposition, to reconstruct damaged tissues. This study evaluates the regeneration of collagen and change in cellular metabolic rate in vivo during wound healing in rats, with second harmonic generation (SHG) and fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy respectively. The metabolic rate of cells is reflected through the lifetime of the autofluorescence from the co-enzyme protein, reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, due to its change in the relative concentration of bound and free forms. A higher than normal cellular metabolic rate is observed during the first week of healing, which decreases gradually after eight days of wound formation. SHG signal intensity change indicates the net degradation of collagen during the inflammatory phase, and net regeneration begins on day five. Eventually, the quantity of collagen increases gradually to form a scar tissue as the final product. Importantly, this work demonstrates the feasibility of an in vivo imaging approach for a normal wound on rat skin, which has the potential to supplement the noninvasive clinical diagnosis of wounds.
Nonlinear optics, when combined with microscopy, is known to provide advantages including novel contrast, deep tissue observation, and minimal invasiveness. In addition, special nonlinearities, such as switch on/off and saturation, can enhance the spatial resolution below the diffraction limit, revolutionizing the field of optical microscopy. These nonlinear imaging techniques are extremely useful for biological studies on various scales from molecules to cells to tissues. Nevertheless, in most cases, nonlinear optical interaction requires strong illumination, typically at least gigawatts per square centimeter intensity. Such strong illumination can cause significant phototoxicity or even photodamage to fragile biological samples. Therefore, it is highly desirable to find mechanisms that allow the reduction of illumination intensity. Surface plasmon, which is the collective oscillation of electrons in metal under light excitation, is capable of significantly enhancing the local field around the metal nanostructures and thus boosting up the efficiency of nonlinear optical interactions of the surrounding materials or of the metal itself. In this mini-review, we discuss the recent progress of plasmonics in nonlinear optical microscopy with a special focus on biological applications. The advancement of nonlinear imaging modalities (including incoherent/ coherent Raman scattering, two/three-photon luminescence, and second/third harmonic generations that have been amalgamated with plasmonics), as well as the novel subdiffraction limit imaging techniques based on nonlinear behaviors of plasmonic scattering, is addressed.
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