Direct label-free measurement of the distribution of small molecular weight compound inside thick biological tissue using coherent Raman microspectroscopy

Distributions of small molecular weight (less than 300 Da) compounds inside biological tissue have been obscure because of the lack of appropriate methods to measure them. Although fluorescence techniques are widely used to characterise the localisation of large biomolecules, they cannot be easily applied to the cases with small molecule compounds. We used CARS spectroscopy to detect and identify a label-free small molecule compound. To facilitate detection in aqueous environment, we utilised time-resolved and phase-sensitive techniques to reduce non-resonant background generated from water. We applied this technique to detect small molecular weight compound, taurine, inside mouse cornea tissue immersed in taurine solution as an initial model experiment. We detected a Raman peak of taurine near wavenumber 1033 cm(−1) inside cornea and successfully characterised its depth profile in the tissue. Our CARS spectra measurement can be a promising method to measure and visualise the distribution of small bio-related compounds in biological background without using any labeling, paving the way for new cell biological analysis in various disciplines.