Uncovering of melanin fluorescence in human skin tissue

Matthias Scholz; Goran Stankovic; Gunter Seewald; Dieter Leupold

doi:10.1117/12.728272

13 July 2007 Uncovering of melanin fluorescence in human skin tissue

Matthias Scholz, Goran Stankovic, Gunter Seewald, Dieter Leupold

Proceedings Volume 6633, Biophotonics 2007: Optics in Life Science; 663321 (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.728272
Event: European Conferences on Biomedical Optics, 2007, Munich, Germany

Abstract

Due to its extremely low fluorescence quantum yield, in the conventionally (one-photon) excited autofluorescence of skin tissue, melanin fluorescence is masked by several other endogenous and possibly also exogenous fluorophores (e.g. NADH, FAD, Porphyrins). A first step to enhance the melanin contribution had been realized by two-photon fs-pulse excitation in the red/near IR, based on the fact that melanin can be excited by stepwise two-photon absorption, whereas all other fluorophores in this spectral region allow only simultaneous two-photon excitation. Now, the next and decisive step has been realized: Using an extremely sensitive detection system, for the first time twophoton fluorescence of skin tissue excited with pulses in the ns-range could be measured. The motivation for this step was based on the fact that the population density of the fluorescent level resulting from a stepwise excitation has a different dependence of the pulse duration than that from a simultaneous excitation (&Dgr;t² vs. &Dgr;t). Due to this strong discrimination between the fluorophores, practically pure melanin fluorescence can be obtained. Examples for in-vivo, ex-vivo as well as paraffin embedded skin tissue will be shown. The content of information with respect to early diagnosis of skin deseases will be discussed.

Citation Download Citation

Matthias Scholz, Goran Stankovic, Gunter Seewald, and Dieter Leupold "Uncovering of melanin fluorescence in human skin tissue", Proc. SPIE 6633, Biophotonics 2007: Optics in Life Science, 663321 (13 July 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.728272

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