Label-free visualization of collagen in submucosa as a potential diagnostic marker for early detection of colorectal cancer

The collagen signature in colorectal submucosa is changed due to remodeling of the extracellular matrix during the malignant process and plays an important role in noninvasive early detection of human colorectal cancer. In this work, multiphoton microscopy (MPM) was used to monitor the changes of collagen in normal colorectal submucosa (NCS) and cancerous colorectal submucosa (CCS). What’s more, the collagen content was quantitatively measured. It was found that in CCS the morphology of collagen becomes much looser and the collagen content is significantly reduced compared to NCS. These results suggest that MPM has the ability to provide collagen signature as a potential diagnostic marker for early detection of colorectal cancer.