Miniaturized selective plane illumination microscopy for high-contrast in vivo fluorescence imaging

Light-sheet-based fluorescence imaging techniques rely on simultaneous excitation of a single optical plane and thus permit high-contrast optically sectioned imaging of extended tissue samples. Here, we introduce a miniaturized fiber-optic implementation of a selective plane-illumination microscope (miniSPIM). The excitation light was delivered through a single-mode optical fiber, and a light-sheet was created with a cylindrical gradient-index lens and a right-angle microprism. Fluorescence emission was collected orthogonally to the light-sheet through a gradient-index lens assembly and a coherent fiber bundle. The end face of the fiber bundle was imaged onto a charge-coupled device camera. The spatial resolutions of the miniSPIM were 3.2 mu m laterally and 5.1 mu m axially. Images of fluorescent beads and neurons in mouse neocortex exhibited superior axial resolution and contrast in the miniSPIM-mode compared to images recorded in epi-illumination mode. The miniSPIM may thus enable novel in vivo imaging approaches. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America