Stain-free identification of cell nuclei using tomographic phase microscopy in flow cytometry.

Quantitative Phase Imaging (QPI) has gained popularity in bioimaging because it can avoid the need for cell staining, which in some cases is difficult or impossible. However, as a result, QPI does not provide labelling of various specific intracellular structures. Here we show a novel computational segmentation method based on statistical inference that makes it possible for QPI techniques to identify the cell nucleus. We demonstrate the approach with refractive index tomograms of stain-free cells reconstructed through the tomographic phase microscopy in flow cytometry mode. In particular, by means of numerical simulations and two cancer cell lines, we demonstrate that the nucleus can be accurately distinguished within the stain-free tomograms. We show that our experimental results are consistent with confocal fluorescence microscopy (FM) data and microfluidic cytofluorimeter outputs. This is a significant step towards extracting specific three-dimensional intracellular structures directly from the phase-contrast data in a typical flow cytometry configuration.

Imaging with second-harmonic radiation probes in living tissue.

We demonstrate that second-harmonic radiation imaging probes are efficient biomarkers for imaging in living tissue. We show that 100 nm and 300 nm BaTiO(3) nanoparticles used as contrast markers could be detected through 50 µm and 120 µm of mouse tail tissue in vitro or in vivo. Experimental results and Monte-Carlo simulations are in good agreement.

Imaging through turbid layers by scanning the phase conjugated second harmonic radiation from a nanoparticle.

We demonstrate imaging through a turbid layer by using digital phase conjugation of the second harmonic field radiated from a beacon nanoparticle. We show that the phase-conjugated focus can be displaced from its initial position by illuminating the same region of the turbid layer with an angular offset. An image is obtained by scanning the phase-conjugated focus through the turbid layer in a region around the nanoparticle. We obtain a clear image of the target by measuring the light transmitted through it when scanning the focused beam.

Digital phase conjugation of second harmonic radiation emitted by nanoparticles in turbid media.

We demonstrate focusing coherent light on a nanoparticle through turbid media based on digital optical phase conjugation of second harmonic generation (SHG) field from the nanoparticle. A SHG active nanoparticle inside a turbid medium was excited at the fundamental frequency and emitted SHG field as a point source. The SHG emission was scattered by the turbid medium, and the scattered field was recorded by off-axis digital holography. A phase-conjugated beam was then generated by using a phase-only spatial light modulator and sent back through the turbid medium, which formed a nearly ideal focus on the nanoparticle.

Bioconjugation of barium titanate nanocrystals with immunoglobulin G antibody for second harmonic radiation imaging probes.

The second harmonic generation (SHG) active nanocrystals have been demonstrated as attractive imaging probes in nonlinear microscopy due to their coherent, non-bleaching and non-blinking signals with a broad flexibility in the choice of excitation wavelength. For the use of these nanocrystals as biomarkers, it is essential to prepare a chemical interface for specific labeling. We developed a specific labeling scheme for barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanocrystals which we use as second harmonic radiation imaging probes. The specificity was achieved by covalently coupling antibodies onto the nanocrystals. We demonstrate highly specific labeling of the nanocrystal conjugates in an antibody microarray and also the membrane proteins of live biological cells in vitro. The development of surface functionalization and bioconjugation of SHG active nanocrystals provides the opportunities of applying them to biological studies.