Histopathology forms the gold standard for the diagnosis of breast cancer. Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopic imaging has been proposed to be a potentially powerful adjunct to current histopathological techniques. Most studies using FT-IR imaging for breast tissue analysis have been in the transmission or transmission-reflection mode, in which the wavelength and optics limit the data to a relatively coarse spatial resolution (typically, coarser than 5 μm × 5 μm per pixel). This resolution is insufficient to examine many histologic structures. Attenuated Total Reflectance (ATR) FT-IR imaging incorporating a Germanium optic can allow for a four-fold increase in spatial resolution due to the material's high refractive index in the mid-IR. Here, we employ ATR FT-IR imaging towards examining cellular and tissue structures that constitute and important component of breast cancer diagnosis. In particular, we resolve and chemically characterize endothelial cells, myoepithelial cells and terminal ductal lobular units. Further extending the ability of IR imaging to examine sub-cellular structures, we report the extraction of intact chromosomes from a breast cancer cells and their spatially localized analysis as a novel approach to understand changes associated with the molecular structure of DNA in breast cancer.

中文翻译：

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用于乳腺组织病理学的衰减全反射傅里叶变换红外光谱成像

组织病理学形成了诊断乳腺癌的金标准。傅里叶变换红外 (FT-IR) 光谱成像被认为是当前组织病理学技术的潜在强大辅助手段。大多数使用 FT-IR 成像进行乳房组织分析的研究都采用透射或透射-反射模式，其中波长和光学将数据限制为相对较粗的空间分辨率（通常，每像素粗于 5 μm × 5 μm） . 该分辨率不足以检查许多组织学结构。由于材料在中红外波段的高折射率，衰减全反射 (ATR) FT-IR 成像结合了锗光学元件，可以将空间分辨率提高四倍。这里，我们采用 ATR FT-IR 成像来检查构成乳腺癌诊断重要组成部分的细胞和组织结构。特别是，我们解析和化学表征内皮细胞、肌上皮细胞和末端导管小叶单位。为了进一步扩展红外成像检查亚细胞结构的能力，我们报告了从乳腺癌细胞中提取完整染色体及其空间定位分析，作为了解与乳腺癌中 DNA 分子结构相关的变化的一种新方法。