Laser-Induced Spectral-Selective Autofluorescent Microscopy as a Prospective Method of Research in Biomedicine

Abstract

In modern medical diagnostics, optical methods of studying living tissues have become widespread and are collectively called "optical biopsy". One such method is autofluorescence microscopy, which provides additional information about the structural and functional features of the sample. In this paper, an analysis of existing data was performed on the properties of autofluorescence of cells and tissues to evaluate the available instrumental systems and methods for monitoring autofluorescence and the potential for its application in the biomedical field. Over the past few years, advanced optical-electronic methods have become available to detect various pathological conditions of tissues and environments of the human body by evaluating signals emitted by endogenous fluorophores. Because these molecules are often involved in basic biological processes, they are important parameters for checking the condition of cells and tissues. In our opinion, analytical methods based on autofluorescence monitoring have great potential in both research and diagnosis, and interest in the use of these new analytical tools is constantly growing. Methods based on autofluorescence can give more information about the object under study with relatively lower costs and less diagnostic error.