红外与激光工程, 2023, 52 (8): 20230201, 网络出版: 2023-10-19  

小鼠大脑飞秒双光子荧光三维显微成像研究

Two-photon fluorescence 3D microscopic imaging of mouse brain based on femtosecond pulses
作者单位
1 河北工业大学 电子信息工程学院 先进激光技术研究中心,天津 300401
2 河北省先进激光技术与装备重点实验室,天津 300401
3 哈尔滨工业大学 可调谐激光技术国家重点实验室,黑龙江 哈尔滨 150080
摘要
双光子荧光(two-photon fluorescence,TPF)显微成像技术借助荧光探针实现样品中被标记成分的特异性成像,具有天然的三维层析能力、高成像深度与空间分辨率、以及更小的光漂白与光损伤,已经发展成为化学、医药学和生命科学领域的一项重要研究工具。文中通过分析高斯光束复振幅在空间中的分布,推导出TPF信号的纵向与径向分布公式,以此估算出文中的TPF显微成像系统的横向分辨率为453 nm,纵向分辨率为2.087 μm。使用飞秒激光器作为激发光源,搭建了TPF显微成像系统。在800 nm波长的飞秒脉冲激发下,测量了罗丹明B溶液的TPF光谱,从而选择636~703 nm作为显微成像的荧光探测窗口。随后开展了对罗丹明B染色的小鼠大脑切片的TPF显微成像实验研究,利用断层扫描成像的方式获得了小鼠大脑切片在0~14 μm深度内的荧光强度分布。通过三维重构完成了对生物样品的三维立体成像,获得了小鼠大脑中灰质与白质在不同深度的分布情况,实验结果证明了搭建的显微成像系统具有优异的成像深度与空间分辨能力。
Abstract
ObjectiveOptical microscopy technology is to observe and record images of the microstructure of objects at a scale indistinguishable from the human eye, and has become an important tool for human observation of the microscopic world. Among them, electron microscopy has a resolution that breaks the limit of optical diffraction and can reach the nanometer level. However, it needs to provide a vacuum environment for electron acceleration, so it is not conducive to the observation of living samples. Optical microscopes are easy to operate and inexpensive, and are widely used in scientific research, industry, medicine and other fields. Conventional light microscopes rely on the contrast produced by differences in the optical properties of the sample for imaging, and do not require labeling or staining, but do not have sufficient specificity. In contrast, nonlinear optical microscopy not only realizes specificity imaging, but also has higher imaging depth and resolution. Among them, fluorescence microscopy technology with the help of fluorescent probes to label different components within the biological sample, through the detection of fluorescence signal to achieve imaging of the labeled components in the sample, to obtain its distribution within the sample. TPF (two-photon fluorescence) microscopic imaging technology based on the nonlinear effect of two-photon absorption, the fluorescence signal will not be excited outside the focal plane, and therefore has a high spatial resolution. TPF microscopy mostly uses infrared wavelength light source, which has lower phototoxicity and photobleaching to biological samples and higher imaging depth. In summary, this paper builds a TPF microscopy system based on femtosecond pulsed light source to study the imaging performance of the system on biological samples.MethodsWe build a TPF microscopic imaging system (Fig.1), using a Ti: sapphire femtosecond laser as the excitation laser source, with a central wavelength of 800 nm, a repetition frequency of 80 MHz, and a pulse width of 100 fs. The scanning optical path of the system was formed by lens and a scanning oscillator to complete the collimation, beam reduction, and two-dimensional deflection of the excitation light. The fluorescence signal is converted into an electrical signal and processed by a computer to obtain the imaging results.Results and DiscussionsThe output spectrum of the femtosecond laser, and the fluorescence spectrum of rhodamine B were obtained using a TPF spectroscopic measurement system (Fig.2). The central wavelength of the femtosecond laser was 1 030 nm, and the half-height width of the spectrum was 14.47 nm. While the spectral range of the fluorescence covered from 620 nm to 710 nm, the intensity increased steeply from 620 nm, with a peak at 630 nm, and then the intensity decreased slowly with increasing wavelength, so the laser could effectively excite the TPF signal of the sample. The relationship between the two-photon fluorescence intensity and the excitation pulse power was analyzed by adjusting the power of the excitation pulse (Fig.4). The fluorescence intensity was linearly related to the square of the excitation power in the region of different concentrations of the samples. The ratio coefficient of fluorescence intensity to the square of the excitation power was larger in the region with higher concentration for the same excitation power. The fluorescence intensity distribution of the samples within 0-14 μm depth was obtained by 3D TPF microscopic imaging experiments of mouse brain sections (Fig.5). It was obtained that the gray matter portion within the mouse brain sample was located in the superficial layer within 6 μm of the sample, while the white matter portion was more widely distributed longitudinally. The depth distribution curves of the fluorescence intensity of different tissues were obtained by curve fitting, which led to an imaging depth of 12.9 μm for the system. The intensity distribution curves of the narrow slits of multiple samples were plotted, and by analyzing the minimum distance that the imaging system could resolve, a lateral resolution of at least 2.25 μm was derived.ConclusionsA femtosecond laser was used as the excitation laser source. The fluorescence spectra of the rhodamine B solution samples were measured under excitation at 800 nm. Thus a detection window of 636-703 nm was selected for subsequent microscopic imaging experiments. TPF microscopic imaging experiments of mouse brain sections stained by rhodamine B were carried out to obtain the fluorescence intensity distribution of biological samples in the depth of 0-14 μm by tomography imaging. After three-dimensional reconstruction of the images, it was concluded that the gray matter portion within the mouse brain sample was located in a shallow layer within 6 μm of the sample, while the white matter portion was more widely distributed longitudinally, while the gray matter of the mouse brain had higher fluorescence intensity and had a higher density than the white matter portion. The experimental results demonstrate that the constructed microscopic imaging system has excellent spatial resolution and imaging depth, with an imaging depth of 12.9 μm and a lateral resolution of at least 2.25 μm.

张泽, 侯国忠, 邓岩岩, 章媛, 张德林, 李兢兢, 王雨雷, 吕志伟, 夏元钦. 小鼠大脑飞秒双光子荧光三维显微成像研究[J]. 红外与激光工程, 2023, 52(8): 20230201. Ze Zhang, Guozhong Hou, Yanyan Deng, Yuan Zhang, Delin Zhang, Jingjing Li, Yulei Wang, Zhiwei Lv, Yuanqin Xia. Two-photon fluorescence 3D microscopic imaging of mouse brain based on femtosecond pulses[J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2023, 52(8): 20230201.

引用该论文: TXT   |   EndNote

相关论文

加载中...

关于本站 Cookie 的使用提示

中国光学期刊网使用基于 cookie 的技术来更好地为您提供各项服务,点击此处了解我们的隐私策略。 如您需继续使用本网站,请您授权我们使用本地 cookie 来保存部分信息。
全站搜索
您最值得信赖的光电行业旗舰网络服务平台!