Widefield fluorescence microscopy with sensor-based conjugate adaptive optics using oblique back illumination

Single-shot quantitative aberration and scattering length measurements in mouse brain tissues using an extended-source Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor

Deep fluorescence imaging in mammalian brain tissues remains challenging due to scattering and optical aberration-induced loss in signal and resolution. Correction of aberrations using adaptive optics (AO) requires their reliable measurement in the tissues. Here, we show that an extended-source Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (ESSH) allows quantitative aberration measurements through fixed brain slices with a thickness up to four times their scattering length. We demonstrate in particular that this wavefront measurement method based on image correlation is more robust to scattering compared to the standard centroid-based approach. Finally, we obtain a measurement of the tissue scattering length taking advantage of the geometry of a Shack-Hartmann sensor.

Electrically tunable lenses - eliminating mechanical axial movements during high-speed 3D live imaging

The successful investigation of photosensitive and dynamic biological events, such as those in a proliferating tissue or a dividing cell, requires non-intervening high-speed imaging techniques. Electrically tunable lenses (ETLs) are liquid lenses possessing shape-changing capabilities that enable rapid axial shifts of the focal plane, in turn achieving acquisition speeds within the millisecond regime. These human-eye-inspired liquid lenses can enable fast focusing and have been applied in a variety of cell biology studies. Here, we review the history, opportunities and challenges underpinning the use of cost-effective high-speed ETLs. Although other, more expensive solutions for three-dimensional imaging in the millisecond regime are available, ETLs continue to be a powerful, yet inexpensive, contender for live-cell microscopy.

Label-free microendoscopy using a micro-needle imaging probe for in vivo deep tissue imaging

We report a label-free imaging method for microendoscopy that uses a needle-type imaging probe. We inserted a thin GRIN lens that had been attached to a fiber bundle into a medical-grade needle that was used as an imaging probe. The introduction of the needle probe into biological tissue allows for direct access to deep regions that we otherwise could not achieve because of the multiple light scattering. To minimize invasiveness, we introduced the illuminating probe on the tissue surface, using an oblique back-illumination configuration. We achieved three-dimensional depth imaging by changing the depth of penetration. Since only the imaging probe goes deep into the tissue while leaving the illumination channels outside, the achievable signal depends on the location of the illumination channels. We explored this point and investigated the optimal condition for the illumination distance in a systematic way. We also applied this method to ex vivo, as well as in vivo, imaging of a mouse brain, and confirmed that we had visualized the microvasculature embedded deep within the brain.

Fourier conjugate adaptive optics for deep-tissue large field of view imaging

Light microscopy enables multifunctional imaging of biological specimens at unprecedented depths and resolutions. However, the performance of all optical methods degrades with the imaging depth due to sample-induced aberrations. Methods of adaptive optics (AO), which are aimed at pre-compensation of these distortions, still suffer from a limited field of view and imaging depth as well as inconvenient microscope design. Here, I propose and investigate a new approach to overcome these limitations: Fourier image plane conjugate AO. Two experimental designs of the new approach are carefully studied, and an accurate comparison between different methods of AO is presented. Fourier conjugate AO provides a larger field of view, which can only be limited by the angular memory effect, and allows the optimal use of the spatial light modulator. Moreover, theoretically possible imaging depth of Fourier conjugate AO is limited only by the working distance of the objective and not by the microscope design.