Feasibility study of dual-modality optical-Raman projection tomography

Abstract

Volumetric imaging enables rapid, quantitative and global measurements of cells, tissues or organisms to obtain their biomolecular information and has become a powerful tool for studying cellular metabolism, brain function and developmental biology. Optical projection tomography (OPT) plays an important role in whole-body imaging of cells, organs, embryos and organisms because it enables three-dimensional (3D) imaging with high spatial and temporal resolution of samples at the millimeter level. However, the OPT technique relies on fluorescent labels for chemical targeting, which can perturb the biological function of living system. As a label-free molecular imaging technique, widefield Raman imaging enables high-resolution analysis of large field-of-view samples. Its combination with projection tomographic strategy enables high-resolution 3D imaging of large-scale samples in a label-free manner. However, this technique was failure to determine the tissue microstructure and specific spatial distribution. Here, we proposed a concept of new label free volumetric imaging, dual-modality of optical-Raman projection tomography. In this concept, Raman projection tomography was assigned to achieve volumetric imaging of chemical composition and distribution in a 3D volume, and the OPT was used to obtain structural information of the 3D volume with micron-level spatial resolution. We further homebuilt a dual-modality imaging system for optical-Raman projection tomography and the feasibility of the system was validated by imaging polystyrene microspheres and dimethyl sulfoxide. Finally, we demonstrated the application potential by a series of bio-sample experiments.