Non-invasive monitoring of chronic liver disease via near-infrared and shortwave-infrared imaging of endogenous lipofuscin

• DOI: 10.1038/s41551-020-0569-y
• Publication Date: 2020-06-22T16:03:58Z
• Authors: Mari Saif; Wilhelmus J. Kwanten; Jessica A. Carr; Ivy X. Chen; Jessica M. Posada; Amitabh Srivastava; Juanye Zhang; Yi Zheng; Matthias Pinter; Sampurna Chatterjee; Samir Softic; C. Ronald Kahn; Klaus van Leyen; Oliver T. Bruns; Rakesh K. Jain; Moungi G. Bawendi
• Keywords: Liver Cirrhosis; Male; 0301 basic medicine; Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared; Lipodystrophy; Liver Diseases; Optical Imaging; 610; Fluorescence; Lipofuscin; Mice; 03 medical and health sciences; Liver; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; Chronic Disease; Disease Progression; Animals; Humans; Female; Human medicine; Biology; Research Subject Categories::MEDICINE::Physiology and pharmacology::Radiological research::Diagnostic radiology; Biomarkers

Monitoring the progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is hindered by a lack of suitable non-invasive imaging methods. Here, we show that the endogenous pigment lipofuscin displays strong near-infrared and shortwave-infrared fluorescence when excited at 808 nm, enabling label-free imaging of liver injury in mice and the discrimination of pathological processes from normal liver processes with high specificity and sensitivity. We also show that the near-infrared and shortwave-infrared fluorescence of lipofuscin can be used to monitor the progression and regression of liver necroinflammation and fibrosis in mouse models of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and advanced fibrosis, as well as to detect non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and cirrhosis in biopsied samples of human liver tissue.