Hypericin incorporation and localization in fixed HeLa cells for various conditions of fixation and incubation.

Hypericin is a photosensitizer expressing high affinity for cancerous cells in vivo. Diagnosis of cancer based on hypericin fluorescence imaging has been successfully assessed in several clinical trials. Our final objective will be to evaluate the potential of hypericin fluorescence imaging to improve the efficacy of cervical cancer diagnosis performed on fixed cell smears obtained from liquid-based cytology.