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Updated: May 31, 2026

High-definition Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopic Imaging of Human Tissue Sections towards Improving Pathology
Published on: January 21, 2015
Visualization and characterisation of defined hair follicle compartments by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) imaging
Katherine Lau1, Martin A B Hedegaard, Jennifer E Kloepper
1Institute of Physical Chemistry, Friedrich-Schiller University of Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Background:
To visualise and characterise skin architecture, the tissue usually has to be destroyed and labelled.
Objectives:
The use of Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy as a label-free, minimally sample destructive method to define hair follicular structure has been explored and demonstrated in this paper.
Methods:
Human scalp skin cryosections were imaged using FTIR microscopy and the data was subsequently analysed with N-FINDR spectral unmixing algorithm.
Results:
This resulted in an excellent distinction of known hair follicle tissue layers, which could be discerned based on their molecular structure.
Conclusion:
The development of a minimally sample-destructive, label-free spectroscopy based technique that can differentiate layers of cells in the dermal papilla and connective tissue sheath in the mesenchyme of the hair follicle paves the way forward to identifying spectral markers important in wound healing and stem cell therapies.
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