Optical Microscopy and the Extracellular Matrix Structure: A Review

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

• Level A · Stronger Clinical Evidence
• Level B · Emerging clinical evidence with positive signals
• Level C · Early human research exploring benefits
• Level D · Scientific groundwork from lab and animal studies
• Emerging · Emerging topic under active research

Abstract (original English)

Biological tissues are not uniquely composed of cells. A substantial part of their volume is extracellular space, which is primarily filled by an intricate network of macromolecules constituting the extracellular matrix (ECM). The ECM serves as the scaffolding for tissues and organs throughout the body, playing an essential role in their structural and functional integrity. Understanding the intimate interaction between the cells and their structural microenvironment is central to our understanding of the factors driving the formation of normal versus remodelled tissue, including the processes involved in chronic fibrotic diseases. The visualization of the ECM is a key factor to track such changes successfully. This review is focused on presenting several optical imaging microscopy modalities used to characterize different ECM components. In this review, we describe and provide examples of applications of a vast gamut of microscopy techniques, such as widefield fluorescence, total internal reflection fluorescence, laser scanning confocal microscopy, multipoint/slit confocal microscopy, two-photon excited fluorescence (TPEF), second and third harmonic generation (SHG, THG), coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM), structured illumination microscopy (SIM), stimulated emission depletion microscopy (STED), ground-state depletion

Evidence level

Evidence from laboratory and animal studies provides groundwork for understanding mechanisms and potential before human studies continue.

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