A Modular Fluorescent Camera Unit for Wound Imaging, Communications Biology

Combines portable fluorescent imaging with spatial clustering to map pH and nitric oxide in mouse wounds and relate biomarker patterns to healing progression.

Across eight mouse wounds, smaller, brighter nitric-oxide regions correlate with later healing days and greater re-epithelialization.

Abstract

The researchers developed a hand-held fluorescent microscope featuring rapid set-up and sub-millimeter resolution for biological imaging. They applied this system to track pH and nitric oxide biomarkers in wound healing, using machine learning to identify spatial patterns. Their findings revealed that NO clustering shows high-concentration structures that decrease in size but intensify during the healing progression, potentially enabling prediction of healing stages.