Histological skin morphology enhancement base on molecular hyperspectral imaging technology

Background: Most traditional skin histological analysis methods are based on the light microscopy images, which can only provide limited information and low contrast results for pathology evaluation. Molecular hyperspectral imaging technology can provide both spatial and spectral information of skin sections, which is a new method for histological skin analysis. Methods: The molecular hyperspectral imaging system was developed by coupling an acousto-optic tunable filters adapter to microscopy and the molecular hyperspectral images were analyzed by home-written software with image processing algorithms. Then, the histological structures in skin sections were investigated in several locations to evaluate the potential application of the molecular hyperspectral imaging technique to dermatology. Results: Molecular hyperspectral images of skin sections were obtained. Single-band images, false color images, virtual 3D surface view images, and color-coded spectral clustering results were produced to highlight the skin structures for histological evaluation. Conclusion: Unlike traditional histological analysis with light microscopy, the molecular hyperspectral imaging technology can enhance the visualization of skin structures using their spectral signatures and their gray values. This technology has potential for the diagnosis and histopathologic characterization of different kind of skin cells.