Vol. 26, No. 2, 2004 (June)
	Content

AUTOFLUORESCENCE OF TRANSPLANTABLE HEPATOMA A22 (MH-A22): PROSPECTS OF TUMOR TISSUE OPTICAL BIOPSY

Mindaugas Tamosiunas¹, Julija Makaryceva¹, Jurate Labanauskiene², Saulius Bagdonas¹, Ceslava Aleksandraviciene², Janina Didziapetriene², Laima Griciute², Ricardas Rotomskis^1,2

¹Vilnius University, Laser Research Center, Vilnius 10222 , Lithuania
²Institute of Oncology, Vilnius University, Vilnius LT-08660, Lithuania

Abstract. Aim: Autofluorescence of experimental tumor (hepatoma A22 (MH-A22)) was employed to discriminate the optical differences between necrotic and non-necrotic tumor, hemorrhagic tumor and healthy tissue. Methods: The experiment was performed ex vivo using the transplantable tumor from the right haunch of hybrid mice (C57Bl/CBA). Blue LED light (l_em = 405 nm) was applied for autofluorescence excitation and fibre optics based spectrofluorimeter was used for spectra detection. Results: We observed that necrotic tumor tissue is characterized by the absence of endogenous porphyrins fluorescence, and registered spectra do not possess differences in the red spectral region (600–710 nm) in comparison with normalized autofluorescence spectra of muscle. Moreover, only certain segments of non-necrotic tumor bear the fluorescence of endogenous porphyrins. Conclusions: Based on the experimental results, we suggest that the absence of long-waved fluorescence differences between necrotic tumor tissue and healthy tissue, e.g. muscle can impede the demarcation between healthy and tumor tissue. The uneven distribution of endogenous porphyrins in non-necrotic tumor tissue as well as the absence of endogenous porphyrins fluorescence in the small experimental tumors complicates the localization of cancerous tissue based on the autofluorescence registration.

Key Words: autofluorescence, optical biopsy, tumor diagnostics, necrosis, fluorescence imaging, proliferating cell nuclear antigen.

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