Gentle Label-Free Nonlinear Optical Imaging Relaxes Linear-Absorption-Mediated Triplet.

ABSTRACT: Sample health is critical for live-cell fluorescence microscopy and has promoted light-sheet microscopy that restricts its ultraviolet-visible excitation to one plane inside a 3D sample. It is thus intriguing that laser-scanning nonlinear optical microscopy, which similarly restricts its near-infrared excitation, has not broadly enabled gentle label-free molecular imaging. It is hypothesized that intense near-infrared excitation induces phototoxicity via linear absorption of intrinsic biomolecules with subsequent triplet buildup, rather than the commonly assumed mechanism of nonlinear absorption. Using a reproducible phototoxicity assay based on the time-lapse elevation of autofluorescence (hyper-fluorescence) from a homogeneous tissue model (chicken breast), strong evidence is provided su

SUBMITTER: Wang G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12407279 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature