{"doi":"10.1364/boe.411888","title":"Label-free imaging of fibroblast membrane interfaces and protein signatures with vibrational infrared photothermal and phase signals","abstract":"Label-free vibrational imaging of biological samples has attracted significant interest due to its integration of structural and chemical information. Vibrational infrared photothermal amplitude and phase signal (VIPPS) imaging provide label-free chemical identification by targeting the characteristic resonances of biological compounds that are present in the mid-infrared fingerprint region (3 µm - 12 µm). High contrast imaging of subcellular features and chemical identification of protein secondary structures in unlabeled and labeled fibroblast cells embedded in a collagen-rich extracellular matrix is demonstrated by combining contrast from absorption signatures (amplitude signals) with sensitive detection of different heat properties (lock-in phase signals). We present that the detectability of nano-sized cell membranes is enhanced to well below the optical diffraction limit since the membranes are found to act as thermal barriers. VIPPS offers a novel combination of chemical imaging and thermal diffusion characterization that paves the way towards label-free imaging of cell models and tissues as well as the study of intracellular heat dynamics.","journal":"Biomedical Optics Express","year":2020,"id":103607,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":25,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9578,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":504562,"name":"Daniel Langley","orcid":"0000-0002-9136-8585","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504563,"name":"Breanna M. O’Reilly","orcid":"0000-0001-9320-2880","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504564,"name":"Zay Yar Oo","orcid":"0000-0002-8217-0665","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504565,"name":"Geva Hilzenrat","orcid":"0000-0003-2575-4960","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504566,"name":"Shyamsunder Erramilli","orcid":"0000-0003-3950-9122","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":448997,"name":"Allyson E. Sgro","orcid":"0000-0003-2155-3918","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504567,"name":"Sally L. McArthur","orcid":"0000-0002-4914-6989","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504568,"name":"Michelle Y. Sander","orcid":"0000-0003-0190-4135","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":504561,"name":"Panagis Samolis","orcid":"0009-0009-5850-0175","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":49,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T22:42:48.999009Z","pmid":"33520386","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}