Figure 3
From: Molecular histopathology of matrix proteins through autofluorescence super-resolution microscopy
MUSI-tAF for imaging pre-cancer progression in the human oral mucosa. (a) The schematic representation of the human oral mucosa section showing the keratin-rich epithelium and collagen-rich sub-epithelium. Corresponding diffraction-limited (DL) image, MUSI-tAF, hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining as the clinical gold standard, van Gieson (VG) staining for collagen in the sub-epithelium, and pan-keratin (pan-CK) immunostaining for keratin in the epithelium in (b–f) normal oral mucosa (NOM), (g–k) oral submucous fibrosis (OSF), (l–p) OSF with dysplasia (OSFD), (q–u) oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), (v,w) insets of DL and MUSI-tAF of the oral carcinoma (OSCC) showing pearl like islands, which are markers of metastatic progression (see the yellow box in the VG stain figure t). In the pearl like islands in the DL image (v), the details are averaged out or saturated. While the MUSI-tAF image (w), clearly discerns the local density variations of the fibrous matrix proteins making intensity measurements quantitative. We have used three coloured arrows to compare MUSI-tAF with other clinically relevant images. The yellow arrows and markers (+,*) indicate sub-epithelial changes in MUSI-tAF corroborative with VG stain images that stains collagen (e,j,o,t); the red arrows mark ground truth matching epithelial changes in Pan-CK stain images. DL and MUSI-tAF images are region matched, while the other images are the pathological images taken from the corresponding samples, but are not region matched. Scale bars: (b–u) 50 \(\upmu\)m and (v,w) 5 \(\upmu\)m.
