Chemically-specific dual/differential CARS micro-spectroscopy of saturated and unsaturated lipid droplets

C. Di Napoli, F Masia, I. Pope, Cornelis Otto, W. Langbein, P. Borri

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

22 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

We have investigated the ability of dual-frequency Coherent Antistokes Raman Scattering (D-CARS) micro-spectroscopy, based on femtosecond pulses (100 fs or 5 fs) spectrally focussed by glass dispersion, to distinguish the chemical composition of micron-sized lipid droplets consisting of different triglycerides types (poly-unsaturated glyceryl trilinolenate, mono-unsaturated glyceryl trioleate and saturated glyceryl tricaprylate and glyceryl tristearate) in a rapid and label-free way. A systematic comparison of Raman spectra with CARS and D-CARS spectra was used to identify D-CARS spectral signatures which distinguish the disordered poly-unsaturated lipids from the more ordered saturated ones both in the CH-stretch vibration region and in the fingerprint region, without the need for lengthy CARS multiplex acquisition and analysis. D-CARS images of the lipid droplets at few selected wavenumbers clearly resolved the lipid composition differences, and exemplify the potential of this technique for label-free chemically selective rapid imaging of cytosolic lipid droplets in living cells
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)68-76
JournalJournal of biophotonics
Volume7
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Nov 2014

Keywords

  • METIS-289094
  • IR-91244

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