Open AccessLow-cost, chromatic confocal endomicroscope for cellular imaging in vivo
Author(s) -
Nachiket Kulkarni,
Andrew Masciola,
Abhinav Nishant,
KyungJo Kim,
Heejoo Choi,
Arthur F. Gmitro,
Esther E. Freeman,
Aggrey Semeere,
Miriam Nakalembe,
Dongkyun Kang
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
biomedical optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.362
H-Index - 86
ISSN - 2156-7085
DOI - 10.1364/boe.434892
Subject(s) - confocal , optics , confocal microscopy , lens (geology) , materials science , chromatic scale , chromatic aberration , wavelength , resolution (logic) , spectrometer , preclinical imaging , biomedical engineering , in vivo , physics , computer science , medicine , artificial intelligence , biology , microbiology and biotechnology
We have developed a low-cost, chromatic confocal endomicroscope (CCE) that can image a cross-section of the tissue at cellular resolution. In CCE, a custom miniature objective lens was used to focus different wavelengths into different tissue depths. Therefore, each tissue depth was encoded with the wavelength. A custom miniature spectrometer was used to spectrally-disperse light reflected from the tissue and generate cross-sectional confocal images. The CCE prototype had a diameter of 9.5 mm and a length of 68 mm. Measured resolution was high, 2 µm and 4 µm for lateral and axial directions, respectively. Effective field size was 468 µm. Preliminary results showed that CCE can visualize cellular details from cross-sections of the tissue in vivo down to the tissue depth of 100 µm.