Multispectral fluorescence imaging to assess pH in biological specimens.

Simple, quantitative assays to measure pH in tissue could improve the study of complicated biological processes and diseases such as cancer. We evaluated multispectral fluorescence imaging (MSFI) to quantify extracellular pH (pHe) in dye-perfused, surgically-resected tumor specimens with commercially available instrumentation. Utilizing a water-soluble organic dye with pH-dependent fluorescence emission (SNARF-4F), we used standard fluorimetry to quantitatively assess the emission properties of the dye as a function of pH.