High-performance confocal system for microscopic or endoscopic applications

Confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope using a spatial light modulator

Confocal microscopes can reject out-of-focus and scattered light; however, widefield microscopes are far more common in biological laboratories due to their accessibility and lower cost. We report confocal imaging capacity on a widefield microscope by adding a spatial light modulator (SLM) and utilizing custom illumination and acquisition methods. We discuss our illumination strategy and compare several procedures for postprocessing the acquired image data. We assessed the performance of this system for rejecting out-of-focus light by comparing images taken at 1.4 NA using our widefield microscope, our SLM-enhanced setup, and a commercial confocal microscope. The optical sectioning capability, assessed on thin fluorescent film, was 0.85 ± 0.04 μm for our SLM-enhanced setup and 0.68 ± 0.04 μm for a confocal microscope, while a widefield microscope exhibited no sectioning capability. We demonstrate our setup by imaging the same set of neurons in C. elegans on widefield, SLM, and confocal microscopes. SLM enhancement greatly reduces background from the cell body, allowing visualization of dim fibers nearby. Our SLM-enhanced setup identified 96% of the dim neuronal fibers seen in confocal images while a widefield microscope only identified 50% of the same fibers. Our microscope add-on represents a very simple (2-component) and inexpensive (<$600) approach to enable widefield microscopes to optically section thick samples.

Rapid super-resolution line-scanning microscopy through virtually structured detection

Virtually structured detection (VSD) has been demonstrated to break the diffraction limit in scanning laser microscopy (SLM). VSD provides an easy, low-cost, and phase-artifact-free strategy to achieve super-resolution imaging. However, practical application of this method is challenging due to a limited image acquisition speed. We report here the combination of VSD and line-scanning microscopy (LSM) to improve the image acquisition speed. A motorized dove prism was used to achieve automatic control of four-angle (i.e., 0°, 45°, 90°, and 135°) scanning, thus ensuring isotropic resolution improvement. Both an optical resolution target and a living frog eyecup were used to verify resolution enhancement.

Digital micromirror devices: principles and applications in imaging

A digital micromirror device (DMD) is an array of individually switchable mirrors that can be used in many advanced optical systems as a rapid spatial light modulator. With a DMD, several implementations of confocal microscopy, hyperspectral imaging, and fluorescence lifetime imaging can be realized. The DMD can also be used as a real-time optical processor for applications such as the programmable array microscope and compressive sensing. Advantages and disadvantages of the DMD for these applications as well as methods to overcome some of the limitations will be discussed in this article. Practical considerations when designing with the DMD and sample optical layouts of a completely DMD-based imaging system and one in which acousto-optic deflectors (AODs) are used in the illumination pathway are also provided.

Super-resolution scanning laser microscopy through virtually structured detection

High resolution microscopy is essential for advanced study of biological structures and accurate diagnosis of medical diseases. The spatial resolution of conventional microscopes is light diffraction limited. Structured illumination has been extensively explored to break the diffraction limit in wide field light microscopy. However, deployable application of the structured illumination in scanning laser microscopy is challenging due to the complexity of the illumination system and possible phase errors in sequential illumination patterns required for super-resolution reconstruction. We report here a super-resolution scanning laser imaging system which employs virtually structured detection (VSD) to break the diffraction limit. Without the complexity of structured illumination, VSD provides an easy, low-cost and phase-artifact free strategy to achieve super-resolution in scanning laser microscopy.

Flexible structured illumination microscope with a programmable illumination array

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) has grown into a family of methods which achieve optical sectioning, resolution beyond the Abbe limit, or a combination of both effects in optical microscopy. SIM techniques rely on illumination of a sample with patterns of light which must be shifted between each acquired image. The patterns are typically created with physical gratings or masks, and the final optically sectioned or high resolution image is obtained computationally after data acquisition. We used a flexible, high speed ferroelectric liquid crystal microdisplay for definition of the illumination pattern coupled with widefield detection. Focusing on optical sectioning, we developed a unique and highly accurate calibration approach which allowed us to determine a mathematical model describing the mapping of the illumination pattern from the microdisplay to the camera sensor. This is important for higher performance image processing methods such as scaled subtraction of the out of focus light, which require knowledge of the illumination pattern position in the acquired data. We evaluated the signal to noise ratio and the sectioning ability of the reconstructed images for several data processing methods and illumination patterns with a wide range of spatial frequencies. We present our results on a thin fluorescent layer sample and also on biological samples, where we achieved thinner optical sections than either confocal laser scanning or spinning disk microscopes.

Action potential propagation imaged with high temporal resolution near-infrared video microscopy and polarized light

To identify the neural constituents responsible for generating polarized light changes, we created spatially resolved movies of propagating action potentials from stimulated lobster leg nerves using both reflection and transmission imaging modalities. Changes in light polarization are associated with membrane depolarization and provide sub-millisecond temporal resolution. Typically, signals are detected using light transmitted through tissue; however, because we eventually would like to apply polarization techniques in-vivo, reflected light is required. In transmission mode, the optical signal was largest throughout the center of the nerve, suggesting that most of the optical signal arose from the inner nerve bundle. In reflection mode, polarization changes were largest near the edges, suggesting that most of the optical signal arose from the outer sheath. In support of these observations, an optical model of the tissue showed that the outer sheath is more reflective while the inner nerve bundle is more transmissive. In order to apply these techniques in-vivo, we must consider that brain tissue does not have a regular orientation of processes as in the lobster nerve. We tested the effect of randomizing cell orientation by tying the nerve in an overhand knot prior to imaging, producing polarization changes that can be imaged even without regular cell orientations.

Virtual slit scanning microscopy

We present a novel slit scanning confocal microscope with a CCD camera image sensor and a virtual slit aperture for descanning that can be adjusted during post-processing. A very efficient data structure and mathematical criteria for aligning the virtual aperture guarantee the ease of use. We further introduce a method to reduce the anisotropic lateral resolution of slit scanning microscopes. System performance is evaluated against a spinning disk confocal microscope on identical specimens. The virtual slit scanning microscope works as the spinning disk type and outperforms on thick specimens.

Dynamic neuroimaging of retinal light responses using fast intrinsic optical signals

Transient intrinsic optical responses associated with neural activation offer an attractive strategy for dynamic imaging of neural activity, and may provide a noninvasive methodology for imaging of retinal function. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of near infrared imaging of fast intrinsic optical changes in isolated frog retina activated by visible light. Using a photodiode detector in a transmitted light geometry, we routinely measured dynamic transmitted optical responses in single passes, at the level of one part in 10(4) of background light. Rapid CCD image sequences acquired with transmitted light (bright field) illumination disclosed larger fractional responses and showed evidence of multiple response components with both negative- and positive-going signals with different timecourses. Dark field imaging further enhanced the contrast and sensitivity of optical measures of neural activation. High-resolution imaging disclosed optical responses in single pixels often exceeding 5%, of background light, allowing dynamic imaging at the resolution of single cells, in single passes. Fast optical signals are closely related to identified response components of the electroretinogram. Optical responses showed complex but consistent spatial organization from frame to frame. Our experimental results and theoretical analysis suggest that the optical responses may result from dynamic volume changes corresponding to ion and water flow across the cell membrane, directly associated with the electrophysiological response.

Selective photoreactions in a programmable array microscope (PAM): Photoinitiated polymerization, photodecaging, and photochromic conversion

BACKGROUND

Innovative thinking and experimentation were the hallmarks of Mack Fulwyler's approach to research. This report summarizes some of the ideas and their early realizations that he pursued in the field of imaging cytometry, work that was not published before his untimely death, although he composed the initial draft of this report.

METHODS

Included are related experiments implemented in the programmable array microscope (PAM) devised for patterned illumination and detection, the instrument that Mack Fulwyler employed during a sabbatical leave in Göttingen in 1998. Despite being the originator of instrumentation for flow cytometry and sorting, Mack Fulwyler was intensely interested in imaging systems, recognizing their ability to resolve cellular details obscured by the whole cell signals generally acquired in flow. At one point, these interests merged with those of two other authors (I.T.Y. and T.M.J.), leading to the Image Cytometry and Sorting (ICAS) strategy and project. A major goal was uncomplicated rare cell detection and isolation using a sequential process of cellular labeling via suitable probes, whole field imaging, and selective area-restricted photoinduced reactions designed to encapsulate and/or chemically or physically tag cells in a manner permitting subsequent fractionation by bulk techniques.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

This publication features photoinduced polymerization, photodecaging, photoactivation, and photochromic conversion reactions carried out by Fulwyler and/or the other authors with the PAM, employing operator designated patterns and locations in various samples. Photopolymerization of polyethylene glycol-diacrylate to a gel-like structure allowing the specific selection of objects (cells) for further analysis and processing techniques was the approach explored personally by Mack Fulwyler in relation to the ICAS concept.