Microscope using UV emerges as new diagnostic tool: study

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- A microscope using ultraviolet light instead of visible light to illuminate samples enables pathologists to assess high-resolution images of biopsies and other fresh tissue samples for disease within minutes, according to a new study.

Without requiring the time-consuming preparation of conventional slides or destroying the tissue, the new method may pave the way for the improvement of the efficiency and speed of medical research and patient care, according to the study, detailed in a paper published Monday in journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The technology, known as MUSE, which stands for microscopy with UV surface excitation, makes use of ultraviolet light at wavelengths below the 300-nanometer range to penetrate the surface of tissue samples by only a few microns, about the same thickness of tissue slices on traditional microscope slides.

The phenomenon was originally described by Stavros Demos, one of the co-authors, who is now at the University of Rochester.

"MUSE eliminates any need for conventional tissue processing with formalin fixation, paraffin embedding or thin-sectioning," Richard Levenson, professor and vice chair for strategic technologies in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at University of California, Davis, was quoted as saying in a news release.

"It doesn't require lasers, confocal, multiphoton or optical coherence tomography instrumentation, and the simple technology makes it well suited for deployment wherever biopsies are obtained and evaluated," said the senior author of the study.

MUSE's ability to quickly gather high-resolution images without consuming the tissue has become "increasingly important to submit relevant portion of often tiny tissue samples for DNA and other molecular functional tests," said Levenson.

The ability to acquire instant, high-resolution, full-color images for histology, pathology or toxicology studies is also valuable to basic researchers who hope to analyze tissue samples from experimental animal models at the laboratory bench, according to UC Davis. Enditem