Journal of Biophotonics最新文献

Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is acknowledged as a highly effective analytical tool, and is extensively used in chemistry, biochemistry, and biomedical research. In our attempt to establish a method for monitoring the level of photochemical crosslinking of collagen, aiming at therapeutic applications, we have found that there is actually no straightforward FTIR method able to provide unambiguous outcomes needed to evaluate the crosslinking process, either photochemical or chemical. Based on the analysis of the existing literature, the reasons for this situation were appraised, and deficiencies and uncertainties of the results so far reported were discussed in detail. We concluded that, at this stage, the FTIR-based methods will not become reliable until progress in enhancing knowledge of the chemistry of photochemical and chemical crosslinking of collagen would allow more accurate FTIR band assignments.

Current exosome detection technologies are constrained by limited sensitivity and refractive index (RI) detection ranges. To address this, this study proposes a biosensor based on germanium-doped photonic crystal fiber (PCF) and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology. Featuring a D-shaped structure with three layers of periodic pores, a germanium-doped core, and a gold film coating, this sensor extends the effective RI detection range to 1.00–1.45 RIU and achieves a peak wavelength sensitivity of 30 000 nm/RIU at 1500 nm. Simulation and optimization results demonstrate that this sensor can distinguish normal exosomes (1.35–1.38 RIU), tumor-derived exosomes (1.39–1.42 RIU), and pro-metastatic exosomes (1.43–1.45 RIU). Sensitivity significantly increases in the high-RI range (> 1.42 RIU), with corresponding maximum detection accuracies of 5 × 10⁻⁵, 1.6 × 10⁻⁵, and 3.33 × 10⁻⁶ RIU, respectively. This sensor provides a label-free, high-performance detection tool for early postoperative micrometastasis surveillance, thereby enhancing cancer management efficacy.

This pilot study investigates the effects of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on enamel, focusing on wettability and shear bond strength (SBS) in orthodontic bracket bonding. Thirty-two human incisors are assigned to four groups: two negative controls bonded with Transbond XT (XT) and Ketac Cem (KC), and two experimental groups with plasma pre-treatment (XT-CAP and KC-CAP). Contact angle measurements and shear tests are conducted to assess the influence of CAP on surface properties. Compared to untreated controls, CAP application significantly increases both wettability and SBS (p < 0.001, Wilcoxen signed-rank test and Mann–Whitney U test). Plasma treatment results in higher bracket survival rates, attributed to improved adhesion. Notably, CAP enhances the performance of Ketac Cem, suggesting its viability as an alternative to composite adhesives. These findings highlight the potential of CAP to improve bonding reliability for fixed orthodontic appliances.

We demonstrate a depth-resolved Swept-Source Optical Coherence Tomography (SS-OCT) system for automated poroscopy network identification in fingerprint biometrics. The system employs a 100 kHz swept-source laser (λ₀ = 1060 nm, Δλ = 110 nm) to achieve ~4.5 μm axial and 13 μm lateral resolution at 1.8 mW incident power. High-density scanning (1500 A-scans/B-scan × 500 B-scans over a 3 × 3 mm region) captures volumetric en face images that precisely localize Level 3 sweat-pore microfeatures. In a study of 40 healthy volunteers (20 M, 20 F), an automated ImageJ pipeline extracted pore morphology with sub-pixel accuracy. Two-way ANOVA attributed 60.10% of total variance to pore shape (p < 0.0001) and 14.62% to gender (p < 0.0001). The average pore count was significantly higher in males (20.53 ± 2.14) compared to females (14.00 ± 1.76, p < 0.0001). These results validate SS-OCT–based poroscopy as a robust, depth-resolved alternative for forensic and biometric identification.

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is often treated with albendazole (ABZ). Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) has high sensitivity and specificity, as well as low sample consumption, but its ability to identify changes in serum compounds post-ABZ treatment is unclear. This study used SERS to characterize the Raman profiles of serum from 7 normal, 9 CE-model, and 10 ABZ-treated mice, analyzing profile differences. Tentative peak assignments revealed ABZ-induced biomolecular changes in protein structure (1000 cm⁻¹), uric acid (1130 cm⁻¹), amide III (1203 cm⁻¹), phospholipids, and amide I (1656 cm⁻¹). The top 10 principal components (PCs) accounted for 90% of the variance (PC1: 48.9%). Principal components analysis (PCA) loadings suggested these substances as markers of ABZ treatment. The results show that SERS combined with PCA is a rapid and effective method to observe serum changes in Echinococcus granulosus-infected subjects.

Scleral plaque spots and pigmentation dots have significant potential for non-invasive disease diagnosis. However, the high intra-class variability in their size, shape, and distribution across individuals poses a critical challenge for automated and robust detection in complex scleral images. This study presents an integrated system that combines sclera imaging and object detection to overcome these challenges. First, a specially designed sclera imaging device is employed to obtain the high quality and shadowless scleral images. Then, an improved YOLOv5 model is proposed, incorporating three key enhancements: a CBAM module to suppress redundant information, a series of Mamba blocks to expand the model's receptive field in scleral images, and a small head strategy to enhance the detection effectiveness on small objects. The proposed detection algorithm was validated on three disparate scleral datasets. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can effectively detect scleral spots and dots, featuring robust and generalizable performance.