Label-free tissue NIR-II autofluorescence imaging for visualization of human liver malignancy
Menée à l'aide notamment d'échantillons de tissus hépatiques issus de patients atteints d'un cancer du foie, cette étude identifie des substances endogènes fluorescentes (en proche infrarouge : 1 000 nm - 1 700 nm) qui sont abondantes dans les tissus hépatiques sains et faiblement présentes dans les tissus hépatiques cancéreux puis met en évidence l'intérêt d'une approche basée sur ces propriétés d'autofluorescence pour visualiser et délimiter les zones malignes lors de l'opération chirurgicale
Successful surgical resection of solid tumours requires highly reliable real-time intraoperative tools to accurately delineate tumour boundaries, which remains challenging in routine clinical standards. Here, we identify endogenous substances with intense autofluorescence in the second near-infrared window (NIR-II, 1,000–1,700 nm) that are abundant in human liver tissues but negligible in cancerous tissues. Inspired by this discovery, we develop a label-free and wide-field imaging approach, named tissue autofluorescence NIR-II imaging (TANI) for visualizing human liver malignancies. TANI demonstrates exceptional contrast (7.69 ± 0.52), sensitivity (97.8%) and specificity (98.4%) in delineating various liver malignancies, including hepatocellular carcinoma, intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and liver metastasis from cirrhotic or non-cirrhotic livers, outperforming routine fluorescence-guided surgery and conventional autofluorescence imaging in the visible (400–650 nm) or first near-infrared (700–900 nm) window. The excellent performance of TANI remains unaffected by cancer grade/stage, benign lesions or blood/bile contamination. These findings represent a promising advance in intraoperative decision-making and suggest a strong correlation between near-infrared autofluorescence and diseases. We believe that clarifying the molecular insights underlying these autofluorescent substances may provide new diagnostic directions.
Nature Biomedical Engineering , résumé, 2026