Magnetic resonance spectroscopy a b s t r a c tBackground: Colorectal cancer is one of the most common malignancies worldwide. There is an urgent need for simple and fast methods to improve tumor detection in the diagnostic and intraoperative setting to avoid complications and provide objective information in distinguishing malignant and benign colorectal tissue. Optical spectroscopy methods have recently shown a great potential for this discrimination in different organs. Materials and methods:In this pilot study, fluorescence emission spectra (excitation: 473 nm) and diffuse reflectance spectra (DRS) of normal and tumor tissues from resected colorectal cancer specimen were measured using fiber optical probes in an ex vivo setting, and the data were subjected to multivariate analysis.Results: Substantial spectral differences were found in the fluorescence and DRS spectra of colorectal cancer tissue in comparison to benign tissue. The diagnostic potential of a multimode optical system combining both spectroscopic methods was investigated by mathematical combination. Compared with the individual techniques, a higher sensitivity of the joint DRS-fluorescence optical system in the discrimination between malignant and benign colorectal tissue could be observed. Conclusions:In the pilot study presented herein, a quick and reliable method to differentiate malignant and benign colorectal tissue ex vivo with different spectroscopic techniques using spectral fiber probes could be established. Joint fluorescence and near-infrared spectroscopy had a higher sensitivity in tissue discrimination and showed to be a promising combination of two spectroscopic methods. Further studies using the synergic effect of fluorescence and DRS spectroscopy are needed to transfer these findings into the in vivo situation. ª

Optical spectroscopy is increasingly used for cancer diagnostics. Tumor detection feasibility in human kidney samples using mid- and near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, and Raman spectroscopy has been reported (Artyushenko et al., Spectral fiber sensors for cancer diagnostics in vitro. In Proceedings of the European Conference on Biomedical Optics, Munich, Germany, 21–25 June 2015). In the present work, a simplification of the NIR spectroscopic analysis for cancer diagnostics was studied. The conventional high-resolution NIR spectroscopic method of kidney tumor diagnostics was replaced by a compact optical sensing device constructively represented by a set of four light-emitting diodes (LEDs) at selected wavelengths and one detecting photodiode. Two sensor prototypes were tested using 14 in vitro clinical samples of 7 different patients. Statistical data evaluation using principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least-squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) confirmed the general applicability of the LED-based sensing approach to kidney tumor detection. An additional validation of the results was performed by means of sample permutation.

Matching pairs of tumor and non-tumor kidney tissue samples of four patients were investigated ex vivo using a combination of two methods, attenuated total reflection mid infrared spectroscopy and fluorescence spectroscopy, through respectively prepared and adjusted fiber probes. In order to increase the data information content, the measurements on tissue samples in both methods were performed in the same 31 preselected positions. Multivariate data analysis revealed a synergic effect of combining the two methods for the diagnostics of kidney tumor compared to individual techniques.

Various thermotherapies are based on the induction of lethal heat in target tissues. Spatial and temporal instabilities of elevated temperatures induced in therapy targets require optimized treatment protocols and reliable temperature control methods during thermotherapies. Heat-stress induced effects on mitochondrial transmembrane potentials were analyzed in breast cancer cells, species MX1, using the potential sensor JC-1 (Molecular Probes, Invitrogen, Germany). Potential dependant labeling of heat-stressed cells was imaged and evaluated by fluorescence microscopy and compared with control cells. JC-1 stains mitochondria in cells with high mitochondrial potentials by forming orange-red fluorescent J-aggregates while in cells with depolarized or damaged mitochondria the sensor dye exists as green fluorescent monomers. In MX1 cells orange-red and green fluorescence intensities were correlated with each other after various heat-stress treatments and states of mitochondrial membrane potentials were deduced from the image data. With increasing stress temperatures the intensity of red fluorescent J-aggregates decreased while the green fluorescence intensity of JC-1 monomers increased. This heat-stress response happened in a nonlinear manner with increasing temperatures resulting in a nonlinear increase of red/green fluorescence ratios. These data indicated that mitochondria in MX1 cells were increasingly depolarized in response to increasing ambient temperatures.

Optical imaging in biomedicine is governed by the light absorption and scattering interaction on microscopic and macroscopic constituents in the medium. Therefore, light scattering characteristics of human tissue correlate with the stage of some diseases. In the near infrared range the scattering event with the coefficient approximately two orders of magnitude greater than absorption plays a dominant role. When measuring the optical parameters variations were discovered that correlate with the rheumatoid arthritis of a small joint. The potential of an experimental setup for transillumination of the finger joint with a laser diode and the pattern of the stray light detection are demonstrated. The scattering caused by skin contains no useful information and it can be removed by a deconvolution technique to enhance the diagnostic value of this non-invasive optical method. Monte Carlo simulations ensure both the construction of the corresponding point spread function and the theoretical verification of the stray light picture in rather complex geometry.

Minimally invasive laser-induced thermotherapy (LITT) presents an alternative method to conventional tumor therapeutically interventions, such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy or nuclear medicine. Optical tissue characteristics of tumor cells and their heat-induced changes are essential issues for controlling LITT progressions. Therefore, it is indispensable to exactly know the absorption coefficient μ a , the scattering coefficient μ s and the anisotropy factor g as well as their changes under rising temperatures in order to simulate the treatment parameters successfully. Optical parameters of two different cancer model tissues -breast cancer cells species MX1 and colon cancer cells species CX1 -were measured in the spectral range 400 -1100 nm as well as in the temperature range 37 -60• C. The absorption coefficient of both cell species was low throughout the spectral range analyzed, while μ s of both species rose with increasing temperatures. The anisotropy factor g however dropped for both tissues with increasing temperatures. Light scatterings inside tissues proceeded continuously forward for all species tested. It was demonstrated that optical tissue properties undergo significant changes along with the vital status of the cells when the temperature increases. Screening of the metabolic activities of MX1 and CX1 cells after exposure to heat stress

Abstract:The combined experimental use of laser-induced autofluorescence of cellular metabolites and methodological fundamentals of systems biology will provide access to biological thermal stress analysis on a sub cellular level. A test setup incorporating a pulsed nitrogen laser was realized with which autofluorescence of the coenzyme NADH could be measured in living 3T3 cells. The cells were subjected to different temperature stress at repetitive time intervals. When subjected to a simple mathematical analysis, the NADH concentration change measured through autofluorescence in biological cells exhibited approximate concentration-equivalent balance curves. These results add up to the fundamental know-how about the dosimetry of thermally therapeutic methods.

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