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Updated: Jun 22, 2025
A Label-Free Segmentation Approach for Intravital Imaging of Mammary Tumor Microenvironment
Published on: May 24, 2022
Clearly fluorescent delineating ER+ breast tumor incisal edge and identifying tiny metastatic tumor foci at high
Changle Li1, Changyu Zhang1,2, Wenkai Liu1
1State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Frontiers Science Center for Smart Materials Oriented Chemical Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China. fanjl@dlut.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Fluorescence-image guided surgery (FGS) can intraoperatively provide real-time visualization of a tumor incisal edge and high-resolution identification of tumor foci to improve treatment outcomes. In this contribution, we report a fluorescent probe NB-TAM based on intramolecularly folded photoinduced electron transfer (PET), which displayed a prominent turn-on response in the near-infrared (NIR) window upon specific interaction with the estrogen receptor (ER). Significantly, NB-TAM could delineate a clear tumor incisal edge (tumor-to-normal tissue ratio > 5) in a 70-min time window, and was successfully used to guide the facile and precise resection of ER+ breast tumors in mice. To our surprise, NB-TAM was found to be capable of identifying very tiny lung metastatic ER+ breast tumor foci (0.4 × 0.3 mm), and this ultrahigh resolution was essential to effectively promote tumor resection precision and early diagnosis of tiny tumors. These results clearly elucidate the promising application of NB-TAM as a diagnostic agent for intraoperative fluorescence imaging of ER+ breast cancer.
