Visualizing liver anatomy, physiology and pharmacology using multiphoton microscopy.
Multiphoton microscopy (MPM) has become increasingly popular and widely used in both basic and clinical liver studies over the past few years. This technology provides insights into deep live tissues with less photobleaching and phototoxicity, which helps us to better understand the cellular morphology, microenvironment, immune responses and spatiotemporal dynamics of drugs and therapeutic cells in the healthy and diseased liver. This review summarizes the principles, opportunities, applications and limitations of MPM in hepatology. A key emphasis is on the use of fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) to add additional quantification and specificity to the detection of endogenous fluorescent species in the liver as well as exogenous molecules and nanoparticles that are applied to the liver in vivo. We anticipate that in the near future MPM-FLIM will advance our understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of liver diseases, and will be evaluated from bench to bedside, leading to real-time histology of human liver diseases.
Therapeutics Research Centre, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia.
Haolu
H
Wang
Therapeutics Research Centre, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia.
Xiaowen
X
Liang
Department of Pharmacy, University of Rennes 1, Ille-et-Vilaine, Rennes, 35043, France.
Germain
G
Gravot
Therapeutics Research Centre, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia.
Camilla A
CA
Thorling
School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Gallipoli Medical Research Foundation, Greenslopes Private Hospital, Greenslopes, QLD 4120, Australia.
Darrell H G
DH
Crawford
Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
Zhi Ping
ZP
Xu
Therapeutics Research Centre, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia.
Xin
X
Liu
Therapeutics Research Centre, School of Medicine, The University of Queensland, Princess Alexandra Hospital, Woolloongabba, QLD 4102, Australia.|School of Pharmacy and Medical Science, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA 5001, Australia.
Michael S
MS
Roberts
D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton; D053758:Nanoparticles; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
Multiphoton microscopy; diseases; fluorescence lifetime imaging; function; liver; morphology