Lanthanide luminescence nanothermometer with working wavelength beyond 1500 nm for cerebrovascular temperature imaging in vivo.

Nanothermometers enable the detection of temperature changes at the microscopic scale, which is crucial for elucidating biological mechanisms and guiding treatment strategies. However, temperature monitoring of micron-scale structures in vivo using luminescent nanothermometers remains challenging, primarily due to the severe scattering effect of biological tissue that compromises the imaging resolution. Herein, a lanthanide luminescence nanothermometer with a working wavelength beyond 1500 nm is developed to achieve high-resolution temperature imaging in vivo. The energy transfer between lanthanide ions (Er3+ and Yb3+) and H2O molecules, called the environment quenching assisted downshifting process, is utilized to establish temperature-sensitive emissions at 1550 and 980 nm. Using an optimized thin active shell doped with Yb3+ ions, the nanothermometer's thermal sensitivity and the 1550 nm emission intensity are enhanced by modulating the environment quenching assisted downshifting process. Consequently, minimally invasive temperature imaging of the cerebrovascular system in mice with an imaging resolution of nearly 200 µm is achieved using the nanothermometer. This work points to a method for high-resolution temperature imaging of micron-level structures in vivo, potentially giving insights into research in temperature sensing, disease diagnosis, and treatment development.

MiniMounter: A low-cost miniaturized microscopy development toolkit for image quality control and enhancement.

Head-mounted miniaturized fluorescence microscopy (Miniscope) has emerged as a significant tool in neuroscience, particularly for behavioral studies in awake rodents. However, the challenges of image quality control and standardization persist for both Miniscope users and developers. In this study, we propose a cost-effective and comprehensive toolkit named MiniMounter. This toolkit comprises a hardware platform that offers customized grippers and four-degree-of-freedom adjustment for Miniscope, along with software that integrates displacement control, image quality evaluation, and enhancement of 3D visualization. Our toolkit makes it feasible to accurately characterize Miniscope. Furthermore, MiniMounter enables auto-focusing and 3D imaging for Miniscope prototypes that possess solely a 2D imaging function, as demonstrated in phantom and animal experiments. Overall, the implementation of MiniMounter effectively enhances image quality, reduces the time required for experimental operations and image evaluation, and consequently accelerates the development and research cycle for both users and developers within the Miniscope community.