TY - JOUR
T1 - Quantification of nanoscale density fluctuations by electron microscopy
T2 - Probing cellular alterations in early carcinogenesis
AU - Pradhan, Prabhakar
AU - Damania, Dhwanil
AU - Joshi, Hrushikesh M.
AU - Turzhitsky, Vladimir
AU - Subramanian, Hariharan
AU - Roy, Hemant K.
AU - Taflove, Allen
AU - Dravid, Vinayak P.
AU - Backman, Vadim
PY - 2011/4
Y1 - 2011/4
N2 - Most cancers are curable if they are diagnosed and treated at an early stage. Recent studies suggest that nanoarchitectural changes occur within cells during early carcinogenesis and that such changes precede microscopically evident tissue alterations. It follows that the ability to comprehensively interrogate cell nanoarchitecture (e.g., macromolecular complexes, DNA, RNA, proteins and lipid membranes) could be critical to the diagnosis of early carcinogenesis. We present a study of the nanoscale mass-density fluctuations of biological tissues by quantifying their degree of disorder at the nanoscale. Transmission electron microscopy images of human tissues are used to construct corresponding effective disordered optical lattices. The properties of nanoscale disorder are then studied by statistical analysis of the inverse participation ratio (IPR) of the spatially localized eigenfunctions of these optical lattices at the nanoscale. Our results show an increase in the disorder of human colonic epithelial cells in subjects harboring early stages of colon neoplasia. Furthermore, our findings strongly suggest that increased nanoscale disorder correlates with the degree of tumorigenicity. Therefore, the IPR technique provides a practicable tool for the detection of nanoarchitectural alterations in the earliest stages of carcinogenesis. Potential applications of the technique for early cancer screening and detection are also discussed.
AB - Most cancers are curable if they are diagnosed and treated at an early stage. Recent studies suggest that nanoarchitectural changes occur within cells during early carcinogenesis and that such changes precede microscopically evident tissue alterations. It follows that the ability to comprehensively interrogate cell nanoarchitecture (e.g., macromolecular complexes, DNA, RNA, proteins and lipid membranes) could be critical to the diagnosis of early carcinogenesis. We present a study of the nanoscale mass-density fluctuations of biological tissues by quantifying their degree of disorder at the nanoscale. Transmission electron microscopy images of human tissues are used to construct corresponding effective disordered optical lattices. The properties of nanoscale disorder are then studied by statistical analysis of the inverse participation ratio (IPR) of the spatially localized eigenfunctions of these optical lattices at the nanoscale. Our results show an increase in the disorder of human colonic epithelial cells in subjects harboring early stages of colon neoplasia. Furthermore, our findings strongly suggest that increased nanoscale disorder correlates with the degree of tumorigenicity. Therefore, the IPR technique provides a practicable tool for the detection of nanoarchitectural alterations in the earliest stages of carcinogenesis. Potential applications of the technique for early cancer screening and detection are also discussed.
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U2 - 10.1088/1478-3975/8/2/026012
DO - 10.1088/1478-3975/8/2/026012
M3 - Article
C2 - 21441647
AN - SCOPUS:79951869447
SN - 1478-3967
VL - 8
JO - Physical Biology
JF - Physical Biology
IS - 2
M1 - 026012
ER -