A mini review of quantitative optical technologies for imaging cell and tissue metabolism

Label-free imaging techniques, with their nondestructive, dye-free operation, and broad detection capabilities, have rapidly advanced and found application in biological tissue analysis. The integration of multimodal label-free imaging technologies has gained significant attention as it enables the acquisition of diverse molecular information from multiple sources while overcoming the limitations associated with conventional single-modality approaches. In this review, we examine several key label-free optical imaging technologies and their recent applications. We also discuss innovative multimodal imaging platforms, along with current advancements, limitations, and prospects in the field of label-free imaging.