Table 3.

CARS imaging applications in stem cells.

reference (year)	cell type	study	main findings
Konorov et al. (2007) [56]	murine embryonic stem cells	distinguish differentiated and undifferentiated embryonic stem cells	preliminary images of embryonic stem cells; need improvements in spatial resolution and image contrast
Schie et al. (2008) [61]	human mesenchymal stem cells	MSC differentiation into adipocytes	lipid droplets with high CARS contrast in 21 days differentiated adipocytes
Jo et al. (2011) [62]	human adipose-derived stem cells	ADSC differentiation into adipocytes	characterization of ADSC differentiation into adipocytes; lipid droplets with high CARS contrast in differentiated adipocytes
Downes et al. (2011) [21]	human adipose-derived stem cells	ADSC differentiation into osteoblasts and adipocytes	preliminary CARS imaging of differentiated osteoblasts, with frequency tuned to hydroxyapatite (960 cm−1); lipid droplets with high CARS contrast in differentiated adipocytes
Mouras et al. (2012) [63]	human adipose-derived stem cells	ADSC differentiation into osteoblasts and adipocytes	collagen fibres detected using SHG, and osteoblasts imaged using CARS and two-photon excitation fluorescence; lipid droplets with high CARS contrast in differentiated adipocytes
Mortati et al. (2012) [64]	human skeletal stem cells	collagen production of SSCs in fibrin hydrogel scaffolds	collagen fibres of SSCs in fibrin hydrogel scaffolds were imaged using CARS and SHG
Di Napoli et al. (2014) [65]	human adipose-derived stem cells	ADSC differentiation into adipocytes	lipid droplets with high contrast in adipocytes, comparing standard CARS and broadband hyperspectral CARS imaging; hyperspectral CARS was more quantitative than the usual single-frequency CARS
Smus et al. (2015) [66]	human skeletal stem cells	SSC differentiation into adipocytes	lipid droplets with high contrast, assessed at early stages of differentiation; modulation of human SSC differentiation using different chemical compounds assessed by CARS