Abstract
The study utilizes autofluorescence spectroscopy (AFS) along with multivariate spectral analysis for differentiating various stages of hepatic fibrosis. AFS has recently emerged as an efficient tool for evaluating the variations in different endogenous flurophores. In this study, the potential of AFS for differentiating the stages of liver fibrosis is assessed and compared with the results of enzyme evaluation, histopathology and the most advanced diagnostic tool, MRI. Using a fiber optic probe, the emission profile of the flurophores such as flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), lipofuscin-like lipopigments (lipopigments), porphyrins and the variation in the total hemoglobin concentration are evaluated in vivo on liver fibrosis induced animal models adopting a minimally invasive technique. Significant difference (p < 0.05) in the level of these biomarkers was observed between different stages of liver fibrosis. Normal hepatic tissue could be distinguished from mild and moderate hepatic fibrosis with a sensitivity of 95 to 100% and specificity of 90 to 100% using multivariate spectral analysis. The results are favourable to consider this technique as a potential tool for diagnosing liver fibrosis at an early stage, which is monumental as it otherwise can lead to cirrhosis and liver failure.
Highlights
Hepatotoxicity evaluation, imaging using techniques like ultrasound sonography (USS), computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and histopathology of biopsies are the conventional and advanced methods used in the diagnosis of structural and
We have reported the staging of different phases of liver injury using the autofluroscence signal from the flurophores, collagen, Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH) and FAD38
The peaks around 500, 590, 630 and 670 nm are assigned to the emission of flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), lipopigments, porphyrin and coproporphyrin respectively
Summary
Optical spectroscopic techniques such as Raman, infrared, fluorescence and diffuse reflectance have been widely used and established as reliable tools for disease diagnosis in the last two decades[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18]. The label free method, autofluorescence spectroscopy (AFS) is found to be useful for the analysis of endogenous fluorophores like amino acids, structural proteins, enzymes, vitamins, lipids and porphyrins of biological tissues or fluids for disease diagnosis. AFS is used in the diagnosis of malignancies associated with organs like brain, breast, cervix, colon, liver, prostate and oral cavity[4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14] This is a fast and economically affordable technique and is useful in the follow up of treatments associated with wound healing progression and identification of saliva stains from human skin[22,23]. The histology judgement is based on focally collected specimens and cannot be considered as representative of the entire liver It is the need of the hour, to hunt for alternative techniques preferably in vivo methods for early diagnosis of liver associated diseases
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