Label-free imaging of arterial tissues using photonic crystal fiber (PCF) based nonlinear optical microscopic system

Abstract

Nonlinear optical (NLO) microscopy provides a minimally invasive optical method for fast molecular imaging at subcellular resolution with 3D sectioning capability in thick, highly scattering biological tissues. In the current study, we demonstrate the imaging of arterial tissue using a nonlinear optical microscope based on photonic crystal fiber and a single femto-second oscillator operating at 800nm. This NLO microscope system is capable of simultaneous imaging extracellular elastin/collagen structures and lipid distribution within aortic tissue obtained from coronary atherosclerosis-prone WHHL-MI rabbits (Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbit-myocardial infarction) Clear pathological differences in arterial lumen surface were observed between healthy arterial tissue and atherosclerotic lesions through NLO imaging.