Illuminating aging with multimodal optical metabolic imaging

Aging is intimately entangled with the reprogramming of metabolic pathways that coordinate energy production, biosynthesis, and molecular turnover. However, visualizing and understanding these metabolic underpinnings within their spatial and temporal contexts remains a major challenge. Metabolic imaging has emerged as a transformative approach that enables spatially resolved visualization of metabolic dynamics both at the molecular or cellular and organismal levels. In this review, we summarize recent advances and applications of metabolic imaging in probing aging biology, with particular emphasis on multimodal nonlinear optical imaging techniques and their applications across diverse aging models. Optical metabolic imaging provides unique insights into the mechanisms of aging by capturing metabolic alterations that span from organelle-level interactions to tissue-scale remodeling. Optical metabolic imaging enables the label-free detection of early metabolic shifts in vivo, representing an emerging frontier in aging research. Looking ahead, optical metabolic imaging holds great promise as a practical and powerful tool for clinical translation, advancing precision medicine and enhancing the diagnosis, monitoring, and evaluation of aging processes to promote human health span and longevity.