Non-staining imaging of keratinocyte differentiation with stimulated Raman scattering microscopy

Background and objective: Changes in the chemical components of the nucleus and cytoplasm of keratinocytes are not clarified by conventional microscopic analyses. Recently, stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) microscopy has been applied to biological materials, and makes it possible to observe the three-dimensional morphologies of tissues without histological procedures. In this report, we demonstrate images of epidermal keratinocytes in different phases under in vitro and ex vivo conditions created by the chemical properties of those cells using SRS microscopy.