Direct noninvasive observation of near infrared photobleaching of autofluorescence in human volar side fingertips in vivo

Human transdermal in vivo spectroscopic applications for tissue analysis involving near infrared (NIR) light often must contend with broadband NIR fluorescence that, depending on what kind of spectroscopy is being employed, can degrade signal to noise ratios and dynamic range. Such NIR fluorescence, i.e. "autofluorescence" is well known to originate in blood tissues and various other endogenous materials associated with the static tissues. Results of recent experiments on human volar side fingertips in vivo are beginning to provide a relative ordering of the contributions from various sources. Preliminary results involving the variation in the bleaching effect across different individuals suggest that for 830 nm excitation well over half of the total fluorescence comes from the static tissues and remainder originates with the blood tissues, i.e. the plasma and the hematocrit. Of the NIR fluorescence associated with the static tissue, over half originates with products of well-known post-enzymatic glycation reactions, i.e. Maillard chemistry, in the skin involving glucose and other carbohydrates and skin proteins like collagen and cytosol proteins.