Age dependency of nanosecond fluorescence characteristics in human arteries

Human arteries fluoresce as a result of illumination by UV-light. The fluorescence characteristics of the human aorta and basilar artery were investigated with respect to aging. For this experiment, a time-resolved microscope fluorometer was employed. Resultant fluorescence decayed on a nanosecond scale when applying pulse UV-light. These fluorescences were found to be age dependent in the basilar artery; the fluorescence decay time decreased with increasing human age. However, fluorescence from the aorta did not show the age dependency.