Characterization of the autofluorescence of normal and tumoral esophageal epithelium cells

The objectives of this study are to characterize the autofluorescence spectra of normal and tumoral esophageal epithelial cells and to link the cellular spectra with a data basis of in vivo tissular spectra. Our preliminary results show that no difference in spectral distribution can be observed between squamous cell carcinoma, adenocarcinoma and normal cells. A statistical significant difference is observed between the average intensity of the raw spectra of the different cell types. Nucleus autofluorescence presents the same spectral shape as cytoplasm, but with lower intensity.