The novel femtosecond laser multiphoton imaging system DermaInspect® for in vivo tomography of human skin was used to study the diffusion and intradermal accumulationof topically applied cosmetic and pharmaceutical components. Near-infrared 80 MHz picojoule femtosecond laser pulses were employed to excite endogenous fluorophores and fluorescent components of a variety of ointments via a two-photon excitation process.
Multiphoton optical tomography provides the capability of non-invasive optical sectioning of skin with high spatial and intracellular resolution as well as high NIR (near infrared) light penetration into pigmented skin areas.