Develop new technology for 3D imaging of cells under the skin

Scientists have developed a new technique, a 3D image in real time of cells or single molecules under the skin of a living animal, showing intricate details of the lymph and blood vessels to provide.

The technique, called MOZART (for molecular imaging and characterization of tissue non-invasively cellular resolution) could one day allow scientists tumors of the skin, colon or esophagus, or even recognize, see abnormal blood vessels that occur in the early stages of macular degeneration - a leading cause of blindness.

could allow the technology doctors to monitor how an otherwise invisible tumor under the skin in the treatment responds, or to understand, to break as individual cells of a tumor-free and travel to remote locations, Adam de la Zerda said assistant professor at Stanford University.

In other forms of microscopy, the researchers created tags that lock to molecules or structures of interest to shed light on these structures and to provide a detailed view of where they are in the cell or organism.

Tiny particles called gold nanorods to organ pipes are similar because most tubes vibrate at lower frequencies to provide a low depth, Elliott said Sorelle, a graduate student at Stanford.

Nanorods at lower frequencies of light oscillate longer. These vibrations diffuse the light, detects the microscope.

Researchers from more nanorods that were non-toxic, stable and very bright. To filter the frequency of nanorods of the surrounding tissue, they have developed computer algorithms that can separate the frequencies of the scattered light from nanorods of different lengths and differentiate these surrounding tissues.

The resulting images in three dimensions, high resolution were so great - the order of gigapixel - that the team additional algorithms for the analysis and storage of such large images to develop that necessary. The team tested its technology in the ear of a living mouse, where they observed that the nanorods were taken into the lymphatic system and transported through a network of valves.

They were able to distinguish two different sized nanorods that resonated at different wavelengths in separate lymphatic vessels, and they were able to distinguish between these nanorods into the lymphatic system and blood vessels.

In one study, they could open at the individual valves in the lymphatic vessels and to close the Browse to fluid flow in one direction to control. Having demonstrated that the gold nanorods can be seen in the living tissue, the next step is to show that these nanorods can to particular cell types, such as skin cancer or abnormal vessels to the top tie of macular degeneration stage.

Then could the technology used, to learn more about how these diseases at the molecular level, the progress and also to evaluate treatments in individual patients, which was not previously possible.