High-Specificity Spatiotemporal Cholesterol Detection by Quadrature Phase-Shifted Polarization Stimulated Raman Imaging.

ABSTRACT: Visualizing cholesterol dynamics in living systems in situ remains a fundamental challenge in biomedical imaging. Although fluorescence microscopy requires bulky tags that perturb small molecule behavior, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy enables label-free detection of CH-rich molecules. However, conventional SRS probes only polarized Raman components, limiting molecular specificity by seemingly overlapped peaks. Here, we extend SRS microscopy to achieve rapid, comprehensive detection of Raman tensor through quadrature phase-shifted polarization SRS (QP²-SRS) microscopy. This technique exploits the underlying molecular signatures by detecting both polarized and depolarized components of third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ that originates from molecul

SUBMITTER: Zhang Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12322629 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature