Selective plane illumination optical and optoacoustic microscopy for postembryonic imaging

Abstract

Intravital imaging of large specimens is intrinsically challenging for postembryonic studies. Selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM) has been introduced to volumetrically visualize organisms used in developmental biology and experimental genetics. Ideally suited for imaging transparent samples, SPIM can offer high frame rate imaging with optical microscopy resolutions and low phototoxicity. However, its performance quickly deteriorates when applied to opaque tissues. To overcome this limitation, SPIM optics were merged with optical and optoacoustic (photoacoustic) readouts. The performance of this hybrid imaging system was characterized using various phantoms and by imaging a highly scattering ex vivo juvenile zebrafish. The results revealed the system's enhanced capability over that of conventional SPIM for high‐resolution imaging over extended depths of scattering content. The approach described here may enable future visualization of organisms throughout their entire development, encompassing regimes in which the tissue may become opaque.

Label-free photoacoustic imaging of the cardio-cerebrovascular development in the embryonic zebrafish

“…Zebrafish, which has high similarity to the human genome and optical transparency in the embryonic stage, is considered as an ideal model for studying genetic inheritance, nervous system, cancers, and circulation diseases in humans [5][6][7]. In the embryonic stage, the feature of optical transparency allows pure optical imaging modalities, such as epifluorescence microscopy, fluorescence confocal microscopy (FCM), multi-photon microscopy (MPM), selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), and optical coherence tomography (OCT), to image organs/organ systems at a high spatial resolution [5,[8][9][10][11]. However, to acquire sufficient optical contrast in the embryonic zebrafish, most absorptionbased microscopies require fluorescence labelling or administration of external contrast agents.…”

Beyond early development: observing zebrafish over 6 weeks with hybrid optical and optoacoustic imaging

“…Here, we develop an optoacoustic mesoscopy system in which the sample is rotated while the detector remains stationary. This provides better resolution and overall image quality than the previous optoacoustic mesoscopy system 19 , and allows deeper imaging within samples than a previous hybrid SPIM-optoacoustics system 35 . Our study is the first report of optoacoustic mesoscopy to examine a model organism at different stages of development.…”

The Progress in Photoacoustic and Laser Ultrasonic Tomographic Imaging for Biomedicine and Industry: A Review

“…On the one hand, multiple multimodal approaches have been exploited for both preclinical and clinical investigations at the macroscopic level, by combining the different contrast mechanisms available in whole-body imaging modalities, such as X-ray CT, MRI, PET, or SPECT [93,94]. On the other hand, various microscopic methods can also be combined into multimodal devices, in order to examine shallow tissue regions [95][96][97].…”