Abstracts of the 8th EBSA (European Biophysical Societies Association) European Biophysics Congress. August 23-27, 2011. Budapest, Hungary.

Here we present a feasibility study to develop two-photon microscopy (2PM) into a standard diagnostic tool for noninvasive, skin cancer diagnosis. The goal is defining experimental parameters to maximize image quality of optical biopsies in human skin, while avoiding tissue damage. Possible diagnostic indicators will be compared for healthy tissue, benign, and malignant melanocytic lesions. We report on preliminary results of a study on 2PM imaging of ‘‘ex-vivo’’ biopsy samples, were autofluorescence intensity and contrast between lesion and surrounding tissues were optimised varying excitation wavelength, detection band, and dispersion pre-compensation. Moreover, we determined modulation functions for laser power and detector gain to compensate losses in deep tissue imaging. As the main process of photo-damage, thermo-mechanical modifications were quantified and damage threshold powers were determined. In order to image structural changes in ordered tissue like collagen fibres, second-harmonic generation signals were recorded and optimised.