We thank the generous support from the National Science Foundation (CAREER CBET-1055379) and the National Institutes of Health (1RC4EY021357, 1R01EY019951). We also acknowledge the support from the China Scholarship Council to Wei Song.

1. System Configuration
<ol>
	<li>PAOM Subsystem
	<ol>
		<li>Illumination source: a Nd:YAG laser (SPOT-10-100, Elforlight Ltd, UK: 20 &mu;J/pulse; 2 nsec pulse duration; 30 kHz maximum pulse repetition rate).</li>
		<li>The output laser at 1064 nm is frequency-doubled to 532 nm by a beta-barium-borate (BBO) crystal (CasTech, San Jose, CA). After further split by a laser line mirror, 532 nm light is delivered through a single-mode optical fiber (P1-460A-FC-5, Thorlabs), and 1064 nm laser is recorded by a photodiode (DET10A, Thorlabs), which triggers PA signal acquisition.</li>
		<li>The laser light coming out of the single-mode optical fiber is delivered onto the retina by a galvanometer (GM, QS-7, Nutfield Technology) and a telescope configuration (f1=75 mm and f2=14 mm, Edmund Optics)6.</li>
		<li>An unfocused needle transducer (40-MHz central frequency, 16-MHz bandwidth, 0.4&times;0.4 mm2 active element size, NIH Resource Center for Ultrasonic Transducer Technologies, The University of Southern California) is placed in contact with the eyelid to detect the PA signals generated from the retina. Ultrasonic gel (Sonotech) is applied between the transducer tip and animal eyelid for good acoustic coupling.</li>
		<li>The PA signal is amplified by two amplifiers (ZFL-500LN+, Mini-circuits, and 5073PR, Olympus), and is digitized by a data acquisition board (CS14200, Gage Applied).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>SD-OCT Subsystem
	<ol>
		<li>Low coherence light source: a broadband super-luminescent diode (IPSDD0804, InPhenix; center wavelength: 840 nm; 6-dB bandwidth: 50 nm), which determines the axial resolution of 6 &mu;m.</li>
		<li>The near infrared light is split to reference arm and sample arm by a 50&times;50 customized single-mode fiber coupler (OZ Optics).</li>
		<li>After combining with PAOM illuminating light by a hot mirror (FM02, Thorlabs), OCT sample arm shares the same scanning and delivery optics with PAOM6.</li>
		<li>A home-built spectrometer is used to record the SD-OCT interference signals, where a line scan CCD camera (Aviiva SM2, e2v) allows an A-line rate of 24 kHz. Design of typical spectrometers can be found from several previously published literatures11and fiber-coupled SD-OCT spectrometers are now commercially available. The SD-OCT sensitivity is measured to be better than 90 dB.</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
	<li>Scanning Scheme
	<ol>
		<li>Fast 2-D raster scanning of the galvanometer is controlled by an analogue output board (PCI-6731, National Instruments), which also triggers both the PAOM laser firing and the signal acquisition of OCT spectrometer. As a result, the data acquisitions in PAOM and OCT subsystems are synchronized.</li>
		<li>The PAOM data acquisition is triggered by a photodiode recording PAOM laser sequence (see 1.1.2).</li>
		<li>3-D volumetric images or 2-D fundus images are constructed from 256 B-scan images (256 A-lines per B-scan image).</li>
	</ol>
	</li>
</ol>
2. System Alignment
<ol>
	<li>Maximize the frequency-doubling efficiency of the BBO crystal and the coupling efficiency of the single-mode optical fiber. Wear LG3 goggles (Thorlabs) for personnel eye protection when optimizing the PAOM illuminating light.</li>
	<li>Collimate the fiber output laser of PAOM to 2.0 mm in diameter.</li>
	<li>Align the combined illumination lights of PAOM and SD-OCT to be coaxial.</li>
	<li>Set the PAOM excitation light at ~40 nJ/pulse and SD-OCT probing light at ~0.8 mW, both of which are reported to be eye safe 6,12.</li>
</ol>
3. In vivo Multimodal Retinal Imaging
<ol>
	<li>Transfer the rat to a transparent polypropylene box, and anesthetize the animal by a mixture of isoflurane (Phoenix pharmaceutical, Inc.) and normal air at a concentration of 1.5% and a flow rate of 2.0 liter/min for 10 min.</li>
	<li>Restrain the anesthetized rat in a homemade holder with five-axis adjustable freedom (Figure 1), and keep its body temperature at ~37 &deg;C by a heating pad (Repti therm, Zoomed laboratories, Inc.). Maintain the anesthesia by inhalation gas of mixed isoflurane and normal air with 1.0% concentration and 1.5 liter/min flow rate throughout the experiment.</li>
	<li>Cut the eyelash using a surgical scissors, dilate the pupils with 1% Tropicamide ophthalmic solution, and paralyze the iris sphincter muscle using 0.5% Tetracaine Hydrochloride ophthalmic solution. Apply artificial tear drops (Systane, Alcon Laboratories, Inc.) to the rat eye every other minute to prevent cornea dehydration and cataract formation. Monitor the animal heart rate, respiration, and blood oxygenation by a pulse oximeter (8,600 V, Nonin Medical, MN) during imaging.</li>
	<li>Turn on SD-OCT illuminating light and check the probing light to be ~0.8 mW.</li>
	<li>Activate the galvanometer scanning. Align the SD-OCT irradiation light delivery onto the rat retina and identify the retinal region of interest (ROI) by adjusting the five-axis animal holder. Here, the optic disc is intentionally placed in the center of the field of view, while the ROI should be selected based on different research requirements.</li>
	<li>Further adjust the animal holder to optimize the SD-OCT imaging qualities of retinal cross section in both scanning directions (by switching the raster scanning direction) until the best optical focus is reached.</li>
	<li>Prepare the needle transducer on a five-axis adjustable platform, apply a drop of ultrasonic gel to the transducer tip, and gently contact the transducer tip to the animal eyelid.</li>
	<li>Set PAOM laser to the external-trigger mode, start the galvanometer scanning, and activate real-time display of PAOM cross-sectional image of the animal retina. Carefully adjust the transducer orientation until the PAOM image has the best signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and, in the meantime, shows an evenly distributed PA amplitude patterns in both scanning directions.</li>
	<li>Set the scanning parameters, and conduct the simultaneous retinal imaging of SD-OCT and PAOM. Reconstruct the three-dimensional images of SD-OCT and PAOM off-line. Our reconstruction codes were written in Matlab and three-dimensional visualization was achieved uing a freeware (Volview, Kitware). The algorithm for SD-OCT reconstruction can be found in Ref. 11 and the algorithm for PAOM reconstruction can be found in Ref. 6 and Ref.13. If needed, repeat procedures of 3.7)-3.9).</li>
	<li>After experiment, turn off the SD-OCT probing light, remove the animal from holder immediately, and keep it warm until it wakes up naturally. Keep the animal in a dark environment for an extra hour for eyes to recover. The whole experimental duration, including the animal anesthesia and imaging acquisition, is less than 30 min for an experienced operator.</li>
</ol>

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All experimental animal procedures were approved by the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Northwestern University.

Here, we present a detailed instruction on simultaneous in vivo retinal imaging of rat eyes using PAOM combined with SD-OCT. Optical-scattering-based SD-OCT is, perhaps, the clinical "gold standard" for retinal imaging3; however, it is not sensitive to detect the optical absorption in the retina. The newly-developed PAOM is the only optical-absorption-based ophthalmic imaging modality that provides optical absorption properties of the retina6. Because hemoglobin and melanin are endogen...

integrated photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy and spectral-domain optical coherence tomography

Both the clinical diagnosis and fundamental investigation of major ocular diseases greatly benefit from various non-invasive ophthalmic imaging technologies. Existing retinal imaging modalities, such as fundus photography1, confocal scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (cSLO)2, and optical coherence tomography (OCT)3, have significant contributions in monitoring disease onsets and progressions, and developing new therapeutic strategies. However, they predominantly rely on the back-reflected photons from the retina. As a consequence, the optical absorption properties of the retina, which are usually strongly associated with retinal pathophysiology status, are inaccessible by the traditional imaging technologies.
Photoacoustic ophthalmoscopy (PAOM) is an emerging retinal imaging modality that permits the detection of the optical absorption contrasts in the eye with a high sensitivity4-7 . In PAOM nanosecond laser pulses are delivered through the pupil and scanned across the posterior eye to induce photoacoustic (PA) signals, which are detected by an unfocused ultrasonic transducer attached to the eyelid. Because of the strong optical absorption of hemoglobin and melanin, PAOM is capable of non-invasively imaging the retinal and choroidal vasculatures, and the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) melanin at high contrasts 6,7. More importantly, based on the well-developed spectroscopic photoacoustic imaging5,8 , PAOM has the potential to map the hemoglobin oxygen saturation in retinal vessels, which can be critical in studying the physiology and pathology of several blinding diseases 9 such as diabetic retinopathy and neovascular age-related macular degeneration.
Moreover, being the only existing optical-absorption-based ophthalmic imaging modality, PAOM can be integrated with well-established clinical ophthalmic imaging techniques to achieve more comprehensive anatomic and functional evaluations of the eye based on multiple optical contrasts6,10 . In this work, we integrate PAOM and spectral-domain OCT (SD-OCT) for simultaneously in vivo retinal imaging of rat, where both optical absorption and scattering properties of the retina are revealed. The system configuration, system alignment and imaging acquisition are presented.

Figure 2 shows the 2-D fundus images of SD-OCT and PAOM acquired simultaneously in an albino rat (A and B) and a pigmented rat (C and D), respectively. In the SD-OCT fundus images (Figures 2A and 2C), retinal vessels have dark appearance due to the hemoglobin absorption of probing light. In addition to retinal vessels (RV in Figure 2B), PAOM visualizes the choroidal vasculatures (CV in Figure 2B) in albino eye because of...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Integrated Photoacoustic Ophthalmoscopy and Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography at JoVE.com

Integrated Photoacoustic Ophthalmoscopy and Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Photoacoustic ophthalmology (PAOM), an optical-absorption-based imaging modality, provides the complementary evaluation of the retina to the currently available ophthalmic imaging technologies. We report the using of PAOM integrated with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for simultaneous multimodal retinal imaging in rats.

Both the clinical diagnosis and fundamental investigation of major ocular diseases greatly benefit from various non-invasive ophthalmic imaging ...

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11.4K Views.  Northwestern University. Photoacoustic ophthalmology (PAOM), an optical-absorption-based imaging modality, provides the complementary evaluation of the retina to the currently available ophthalmic imaging technologies. We report the using of PAOM integrated with spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (SD-OCT) for simultaneous multimodal retinal imaging in rats.

Video: Integrated Photoacoustic Ophthalmoscopy and Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography

Three-dimensional Optical-resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy

Optical microscopy, providing valuable insights at the cellular and organelle levels, has been widely recognized as an enabling biomedical technology. As the mainstays of in vivo three-dimensional (3-D) optical microscopy, single-/multi-photon fluorescence microscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT) have demonstrated their extraordinary sensitivities to fluorescence and optical scattering contrasts, respectively. However, the optical absorption contrast of biological tissues, which encodes essential physiological/pathological information, has not yet been assessable. 
The emergence of biomedical photoacoustics has led to a new branch of optical microscopy optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM)1, where the optical irradiation is focused to the diffraction limit to achieve cellular1 or even subcellular2 level lateral resolution. As a valuable complement to existing optical microscopy technologies, OR-PAM brings in at least two novelties. First and most importantly, OR-PAM detects optical absorption contrasts with extraordinary sensitivity (i.e., 100%). Combining OR-PAM with fluorescence microscopy3 or with optical-scattering-based OCT4 (or with both) provides comprehensive optical properties of biological tissues. Second, OR-PAM encodes optical absorption into acoustic waves, in contrast to the pure optical processes in fluorescence microscopy and OCT, and provides background-free detection. The acoustic detection in OR-PAM mitigates the impacts of optical scattering on signal degradation and naturally eliminates possible interferences (i.e., crosstalks) between excitation and detection, which is a common problem in fluorescence microscopy due to the overlap between the excitation and fluorescence spectra. 
Unique for optical absorption imaging, OR-PAM has demonstrated broad biomedical applications since its invention, including, but not limited to, neurology5, 6, ophthalmology7, 8, vascular biology9, and dermatology10. In this video, we teach the system configuration and alignment of OR-PAM as well as the experimental procedures for in vivo functional microvascular imaging.

Optical-resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) is an emerging technology capable of imaging optical absorption contrasts in vivo with cellular resolution and sensitivity. Here, we provide a visualized instruction on the experimental protocols of OR-PAM, including system configuration, system alignment, typical in vivo experimental procedures, and functional imaging schemes.

Optical microscopy, providing valuable insights at the cellular and organelle levels, has been widely recognized as an enabling biomedical technology. As ...

Detection and Isolation of Circulating Melanoma Cells using Photoacoustic Flowmetry

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are those cells that have separated from a macroscopic tumor and spread through the blood and lymph systems to seed secondary tumors1,2,3. CTCs are indicators of metastatic disease and their detection in blood samples may be used to diagnose cancer and monitor a patient&prime;s response to therapy. Since CTCs are rare, comprising about one tumor cell among billions of normal blood cells in advanced cancer patients, their detection and enumeration is a difficult task. We exploit the presence of pigment in most melanoma cells to generate photoacoustic, or laser induced ultrasonic waves in a custom flow cytometer for detection of circulating melanoma cells (CMCs)4,5. This process entails separating a whole blood sample using centrifugation and obtaining the white blood cell layer. If present in whole blood, CMCs will separate with the white blood cells due to similar density. These cells are resuspended in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and introduced into the flowmeter. Rather than a continuous flow of the blood cell suspension, we induced two phase flow in order to capture these cells for further study. In two phase flow, two immiscible liquids in a microfluidic system meet at a junction and form alternating slugs of liquid6,7. PBS suspended white blood cells and air form microliter slugs that are sequentially irradiated with laser light. The addition of a surfactant to the liquid phase allows uniform slug formation and the user can create different sized slugs by altering the flow rates of the two phases. Slugs of air and slugs of PBS with white blood cells contain no light absorbers and hence, do not produce photoacoustic waves. However, slugs of white blood cells that contain even single CMCs absorb laser light and produce high frequency acoustic waves. These slugs that generate photoacoustic waves are sequestered and collected for cytochemical staining for verification of CMCs.

We have developed a flow cytometer using laser induced ultrasound to detect circulating melanoma cells as an early indicator of metastatic disease.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are those cells that have separated from a macroscopic tumor and spread through the blood and lymph systems to seed ...

In vitro Synthesis of Native, Fibrous Long Spacing and Segmental Long Spacing Collagen

Collagen fibrils are present in the extracellular matrix of animal tissue to provide structural scaffolding and mechanical strength. These native collagen fibrils have a characteristic banding periodicity of ~67 nm and are formed in vivo through the hierarchical assembly of Type I collagen monomers, which are 300 nm in length and 1.4 nm in diameter. In vitro, by varying the conditions to which the monomer building blocks are exposed, unique structures ranging in length scales up to 50 microns can be constructed, including not only native type fibrils, but also fibrous long spacing and segmental long spacing collagen. Herein, we present procedures for forming the three different collagen structures from a common commercially available collagen monomer. Using the protocols that we and others have published in the past to make these three types typically lead to mixtures of structures. In particular, unbanded fibrils were commonly found when making native collagen, and native fibrils were often present when making fibrous long spacing collagen. These new procedures have the advantage of producing the desired collagen fibril type almost exclusively. The formation of the desired structures is verified by imaging using an atomic force microscope.

In vitro Synthesis of Native, Fibrous Long Spacing and Segmental Long Spacing Collagen

Simple and reproducible procedures are described for making three structurally distinct collagen assemblies from a common commercially available Type I collagen monomer. Native type, fibrous long spacing or segmental long spacing collagen can be constructed by varying the conditions to which the 300 nm long and 1.4 nm diameter monomer building block is exposed.

Collagen fibrils are present in the  extracellular matrix of animal tissue to provide structural scaffolding and  mechanical strength. These native ...

Photoacoustic Cystography

Conventional pediatric cystography, which is based on diagnostic X-ray using a radio-opaque dye, suffers from the use of harmful ionizing radiation. The risk of bladder cancers in children due to radiation exposure is more significant than many other cancers. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of nonionizing and noninvasive photoacoustic (PA) imaging of urinary bladders, referred to as photoacoustic cystography (PAC), using near-infrared (NIR) optical absorbents (i.e. methylene blue, plasmonic gold nanostructures, or single walled carbon nanotubes) as an optical-turbid tracer. We have successfully imaged a rat bladder filled with the optical absorbing agents using a dark-field confocal PAC system. After transurethral injection of the contrast agents, the rat's bladders were photoacoustically visualized by achieving significant PA signal enhancement. The accumulation was validated by spectroscopic PA imaging. Further, by using only a laser pulse energy of less than 1 mJ/cm2 (1/20 of the safety limit), our current imaging system could map the methylene-blue-filled-rat-bladder at the depth of beyond 1 cm in biological tissues in vivo. Both in vivo and ex vivo PA imaging results validate that the contrast agents were naturally excreted via urination. Thus, there is no concern regarding long-term toxic agent accumulation, which will facilitate clinical translation.

Photoacoustic cystography (PAC) has a great potential to map urinary bladders, a radiation sensitive internal organ in pediatric patients, without using any ionizing radiation or toxic contrast agent. Here we demonstrate the use of PAC for mapping urinary bladders with an injection of optical-opaque tracers in rats in vivo.

Conventional pediatric cystography, which is based on diagnostic X-ray using a radio-opaque dye, suffers from the use of harmful ionizing radiation. The ...

Preparation and Photoacoustic Analysis of Cellular Vehicles Containing Gold Nanorods

Gold nanorods are attractive for a range of biomedical applications, such as the photothermal ablation and the photoacoustic imaging of cancer, thanks to their intense optical absorbance in the near-infrared window, low cytotoxicity and potential to home into tumors. However, their delivery to tumors still remains an issue. An innovative approach consists of the exploitation of the tropism of tumor-associated macrophages that may be loaded with gold nanorods in vitro. Here, we describe the preparation and the photoacoustic inspection of cellular vehicles containing gold nanorods. PEGylated gold nanorods are modified with quaternary ammonium compounds, in order to achieve a cationic profile. On contact with murine macrophages in ordinary Petri dishes, these particles are found to undergo massive uptake into endocytic vesicles. Then these cells are embedded in biopolymeric hydrogels, which are used to verify that the stability of photoacoustic conversion of the particles is retained in their inclusion into cellular vehicles. We are confident that these results may provide new inspiration for the development of novel strategies to deliver plasmonic particles to tumors.

We show the preparation and address the feasibility of cellular vehicles containing gold nanorods for the photoacoustic imaging of cancer.

Gold nanorods are attractive for a range of biomedical applications, such as the photothermal ablation and the photoacoustic imaging of cancer, thanks to ...

Computed Tomography and Optical Imaging of Osteogenesis-angiogenesis Coupling to Assess Integration of Cranial Bone Autografts and Allografts

A major parameter determining the success of a bone-grafting procedure is vascularization of the area surrounding the graft. We hypothesized that implantation of a bone autograft would induce greater bone regeneration by abundant blood vessel formation. To investigate the effect of the graft on neovascularization at the defect site, we developed a micro&#8211;computed tomography (&#181;CT) approach to characterize newly forming blood vessels, which involves systemic perfusion of the animal with a polymerizing contrast agent. This method enables detailed vascular analysis of an organ in its entirety. Additionally, blood perfusion was assessed using fluorescence imaging (FLI) of a blood-borne fluorescent agent. Bone formation was quantified by FLI using a hydroxyapatite-targeted probe and &#181;CT analysis. Stem cell recruitment was monitored by bioluminescence imaging (BLI) of transgenic mice that express luciferase under the control of the osteocalcin promoter. Here we describe and demonstrate preparation of the allograft, calvarial defect surgery, &#181;CT scanning protocols for the neovascularization study and bone formation analysis (including the in vivo perfusion of contrast agent), and the protocol for data analysis.
The 3D high-resolution analysis of vasculature demonstrated significantly greater angiogenesis in animals with implanted autografts, especially with respect to arteriole formation. Accordingly, blood perfusion was significantly higher in the autograft group by the 7th day after surgery. We observed superior bone mineralization and measured greater bone formation in animals that received autografts. Autograft implantation induced resident stem cell recruitment to the graft-host bone suture, where the cells differentiated into bone-forming cells between the 7th and 10th postoperative day. This finding means that enhanced bone formation may be attributed to the augmented vascular feeding that characterizes autograft implantation. The methods depicted may serve as an optimal tool to study bone regeneration in terms of tightly bounded bone formation and neovascularization.

Implantation of autologous and allogeneic bone grafts constitute accepted approaches to treat major craniofacial bone loss. Yet the effect of graft composition on the interplay among neovascularization, cell differentiation and bone formation is unclear. We present a multimodal imaging protocol aimed to elucidate the angiogenesis-osteogenesis interdependence at the graft proximity.

A major parameter determining the success of a bone-grafting procedure is vascularization of the area surrounding the graft. We hypothesized that ...

Switchable Acoustic and Optical Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy for In Vivo Small-animal Blood Vasculature Imaging

Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is a fast-growing invivo imaging modality that combines both optics and ultrasound, providing penetration beyond the optical mean free path (~1 mm in skin) with high resolution. By combining optical absorption contrast with the high spatial resolution of ultrasound in a single modality, this technique can penetrate deep tissues. Photoacoustic microscopy systems can have either a low acoustic resolution and probe deeply or a high optical resolution and probe shallowly. It is challenging to achieve high spatial resolution and large depth penetration with a single system. This work presents an AR-OR-PAM system capable of both high-resolution imaging at shallow depths and low-resolution deep-tissue imaging of the same sample in vivo. A lateral resolution of 4 &#181;m with 1.4 mm imaging depth using optical focusing and a lateral resolution of 45 &#181;m with 7.8 mm imaging depth using acoustic focusing were successfully demonstrated using the combined system. Here,&#160;in vivo&#160;small-animal blood vasculature imaging is performed to demonstrate its biological imaging capability.

Switchable Acoustic and Optical Resolution Photoacoustic Microscopy for In Vivo Small-animal Blood Vasculature Imaging

Here a switchable acoustic resolution (AR) and optical resolution (OR) photoacoustic microscopy (AR-OR-PAM) system capable of both high resolution imaging at shallow depth and low resolution deep tissue imaging on the same sample in vivo is demonstrated.

Photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) is a fast-growing invivo imaging modality that combines both optics and ultrasound, providing penetration beyond the ...

A High-performance Compact Photoacoustic Tomography System for In Vivo Small-animal Brain Imaging

In vivo small-animal imaging has an important role to play in preclinical studies. Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is an emerging hybrid imaging modality that shows great potential for both preclinical and clinical applications. Conventional optical parametric oscillator-based PAT (OPO-PAT) systems are bulky and expensive and cannot provide high-speed imaging. Recently, pulsed-laser diodes (PLDs) have been successfully demonstrated as an alternative excitation source for PAT. Pulsed-laser diode PAT (PLD-PAT) has been successfully demonstrated for high-speed imaging on photoacoustic phantoms and biological tissues. This work provides a visualized experimental protocol for in vivo brain imaging using PLD-PAT. The protocol includes the compact PLD-PAT system configuration and its description, animal preparation for brain imaging, and a typical experimental procedure for 2D cross-sectional rat brain imaging. The PLD-PAT system is compact and cost-effective and can provide high-speed, high-quality imaging. Brain images collected in vivo at various scan speeds are presented.

A High-performance Compact Photoacoustic Tomography System for In Vivo Small-animal Brain Imaging

A compact pulsed-laser diode-based photoacoustic tomography (PLD-PAT) system for high-speed in vivo brain imaging in small animals is demonstrated.

In vivo small-animal imaging has an important role to play in preclinical studies. Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) is an emerging hybrid imaging modality ...

Multimodal Volumetric Retinal Imaging by Oblique Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy (oSLO) and Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT)

While fluorescence imaging is widely used in ophthalmology, a large field of view (FOV) three-dimensional (3D) fluorescence retinal image is still a big challenge with the state-of-the-art retinal imaging modalities because they would require z-stacking to compile a volumetric dataset. Newer optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) systems overcome these restrictions to provide three-dimensional (3D) anatomical and vascular images, but the dye-free nature of OCT cannot visualize leakage indicative of vascular dysfunction. This protocol describes a novel oblique scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (oSLO) technique that provides 3D volumetric fluorescence retinal imaging. The setup of the imaging system generates the oblique scanning by a dove tail slider and aligns the final imaging system at an angle to detect fluorescent cross-sectional images. The system uses the laser scanning method, and therefore, allows an easy incorporation of OCT as a complementary volumetric structural imaging modality. In vivo imaging on rat retina is demonstrated here. Fluorescein solution is intravenously injected to produce volumetric fluorescein angiography (vFA).

Multimodal Volumetric Retinal Imaging by Oblique Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy oSLO and Optical Coherence Tomography OCT

Here, we present a protocol to get a large field of view (FOV) three-dimensional (3D) fluorescence and OCT retinal image by using a novel imaging multimodal platform. We will introduce the system setup, the method of alignment, and the operational protocols. In vivo imaging will be demonstrated, and representative results will be provided.

While fluorescence imaging is widely used in ophthalmology, a large field of view (FOV) three-dimensional (3D) fluorescence retinal image is still a big ...

Nondestructive Monitoring of Degradable Scaffold-Based Tissue-Engineered Blood Vessel Development Using Optical Coherence Tomography

Engineered vascular grafts with structural and mechanical properties similar to natural blood vessels are expected to meet the growing demand for arterial bypass. Characterization of the growth dynamics and remodeling process of degradable polymer scaffold-based tissue-engineered blood vessels (TEBVs) with pulsatile stimulation is crucial for vascular tissue engineering. Optical imaging techniques stand out as powerful tools for monitoring vascularization of engineered tissue enabling high-resolution imaging in real-time culture. This paper demonstrates a nondestructive and fast real-time imaging strategy to monitor the growth and remodeling of TEBVs in long-term culture by using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Geometric morphology is evaluated, including vascular remodeling process, wall thickness, and comparison of TEBV thickness in different culture time points and presence of pulsatile stimulation. Finally, OCT provides practical possibilities for real-time observation of the degradation of polymer in the reconstructing tissues under pulsatile stimulation or not and in each vessel segment, by compared with the assessment of polymer degradation using scanning electron microscopic(SEM) and polarized microscope.

A step by step protocol for nondestructive and long-period monitoring the process of vascular remodeling and scaffold degradation in real-time culture of biodegradable polymeric scaffold-based tissue-engineered blood vessels with pulsatile stimulation using optical coherence tomography is described here.

Engineered vascular grafts with structural and mechanical properties similar to natural blood vessels are expected to meet the growing demand for arterial ...