Noninvasive terahertz near-field nano-imaging of mouse embryonic fibroblasts
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1.Terahertz Research Center, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 611731, China;2.Department of Pharmacy, Personalized Drug Therapy Key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610072, China;3.School of Medicine, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, China;4.Key Laboratory of Terahertz Technology, Ministry of Education, Chengdu 611731, China;5.Tianfu Jiangxi Laboratory, Chengdu 641419, China

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This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. 61921002, No. 61988102, No. 62071108), National Safety Academic Fund (Grant No. U2130113), Sichuan Science and Technology Program (Grant No. 2022JDJQ0065), Chengdu Science and Technology Program (Grant No. 2024-YF05-01803-SN), Sichuan Provincial Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (Grant No. 2024MS512) and from Key Laboratory of THz Technology, Ministry of Education.

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    Abstract:

    Fibroblasts support a broad range of essential organ functions via microarchitectural, biomechanical, and biochemical cues. Despite great advances in fluorescence, photoacoustic conversion, and Raman scattering over the past decades, their invasiveness and limited spatial resolution hinder the characterization of fibroblasts in a single cell. Here, taking mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) as an example, we propose a novel noninvasive approach to investigate the compositional distribution of MEFs at the single-cell scale via terahertz (THz) nanoscopy. Compared to the topological morphology, THz nano-imaging enables the component-based visualization of MEFs, such as the membrane, cytoplasm, nucleus, and extracellular vesicles (EVs). Notably, we demonstrate the real-space observation of the influence of rapamycin treatment on the increase of EVs in MEFs. Moreover, the line-cut and area-statistical analysis establishes the relationship between the topological morphology and the THz near-field amplitudes for different cellular components of MEFs. This work provides a new pathway to characterize the effects of pharmaceutical treatments, with potential applications in disease diagnosis and drug development.

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History
  • Received:January 09,2025
  • Revised:March 11,2025
  • Adopted:March 13,2025
  • Online: March 17,2025
  • Published:
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