Extract

The absorption spectrum is known as a “molecular fingerprint”, which would be useful to investigate the cellular status. However, cells are too thin for their absorption measurement. Here, we developed an optical-cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopic microscopy (CREAM). The light absorption is enhanced by an optical cavity system, which allows the detection of the absorption spectrum with samples having an optical path length of 10 μm at sub-cellular spatial resolution. Principal component analysis of various types of cultured mammalian cells indicates absorption-based cellular diversity. Interestingly, this diversity is observed among not only different species but also identical cell types. Furthermore, this microscopy allows to observe frozen sections of tissue samples without staining. Thus, our microscopy opens the door for imaging the absorption spectra of biological samples and thereby detecting the individuality of cells.

...

You do not currently have access to this article.