Abstract
.We present a multimodal visible light optical coherence microscopy (OCM) and fluorescence imaging (FI) setup. Specification and phantom measurements were performed to characterize the system. Two applications in neuroimaging were investigated. First, curcumin-stained brain slices of a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease were examined. Amyloid-beta plaques were identified based on the fluorescence of curcumin, and coregistered morphological images of the brain tissue were provided by the OCM channel. Second, human brain tumor biopsies retrieved intraoperatively were imaged prior to conventional neuropathologic work-up. OCM revealed the three-dimensional structure of the brain parenchyma, and FI added the tumor tissue-specific contrast. Attenuation coefficients computed from the OCM data and the florescence intensity values were analyzed and showed a statistically significant difference for 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)-positive and -negative brain tissues. OCM findings correlated well with malignant hot spots within brain tumor biopsies upon histopathology. The combination of OCM and FI seems to be a promising optical imaging modality providing complementary contrast for applications in the field of neuroimaging.
Highlights
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical imaging technique, which was introduced in the early 1990’s
We present imaging of amyloid-beta plaques, in ex-vivo brain tissue of a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), using curcumin-based fluorescence contrast and visualize the three-dimensional structure of the brain tissue using the optical coherence microscopy (OCM) channel of our multimodal setup
A supercontinuum laser emitting a broad visible spectrum enabled to achieve submicrometer axial resolution for OCM imaging and by flipping two mirrors, the system can be changed from OCM to fluorescence imaging (FI) mode using the same light source
Summary
Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is an optical imaging technique, which was introduced in the early 1990’s. OCT has since become one of the most important imaging and diagnosis tools in ophthalmology.[1] The use of OCT or optical coherence microscopy (OCM) expanded into a wide range of application fields such as neuro-, skin, and endoscopic imaging.[2,3,4] In neuroimaging, OCT has been utilized to investigate diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD),[5,6,7] Parkinson’s disease,[8,9] and a variety of brain tumors.[10,11,12] in comparison to histology, OCT often lacks tissue-specific contrast of anatomical structures since conventional OCT image contrast is mainly based on light scattering. Current research in the OCT community has focused on validating and/or combining OCT with other established imaging modalities. One promising possibility is to combine OCT and fluorescence imaging (FI).[13]
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