Histopathology mapping of biochemical changes in myocardial infarction by Fourier transform infrared spectral imaging

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) imaging and microspectroscopy have been extensively applied in the identification and investigation of both healthy and diseased tissues. FTIR imaging can be used to determine the biodistribution of several molecules of interest (carbohydrates, lipids, proteins) for tissue analysis, without the need for prior staining of these tissues. Molecular structure data, such as protein secondary structure and collagen triple helix exhibits, can also be obtained from the same analysis. Thus, several histopathological lesions, for example myocardial infarction, can be identified from FTIR-analyzed tissue images, the latter which can allow for more accurate discrimination between healthy tissues and pathological lesions. Accordingly, we propose FTIR imaging as a new tool integrating both molecular and histopathological assessment to investigate the degree of pathological changes in tissues. In this study, myocardial infarction is presented as an illustrative example of the wide potential of FTIR imaging for biomedical applications.