Samples 1 and 2 were incubated in MMPsense™ 680, a fluorescent probe activated by matrix metalloproteinase, while sample 3 (control) was incubated in PBS. (A–C) Imaging results from intact plaques made with MSOT. Cross-sectional multispectral reconstruction, revealing the location of MMPSense680 activity in the slice, is shown by the bright signal (green color online) that is superimposed onto the morphological single-wavelength (635 nm) optoacoustic images. (D–F) The corresponding epifluorescence images from dissected plaque (in green online) superimposed onto the color images of cryosections from the three carotid plaque specimens.
Reproduced from [25] with permission.