The OPFOS microscopy family: High-resolution optical-sectioning of biomedical specimens

TL;DR

This paper introduces the OPFOS microscopy family, a high-resolution optical-sectioning technique using laser light sheets for non-destructive 3D imaging of biomedical specimens, and discusses related methods and applications.

Contribution

It presents the first implementation of LSFM for 3D imaging of biomedical tissue and reviews subsequent related optical sectioning techniques.

Findings

Demonstrated high-resolution 3D imaging of biomedical tissues

Reviewed various LSFM-derived methods and their applications

Showcased applicability across different specimen types

Abstract

We report on the recently emerging (Laser) Light Sheet based Fluorescence Microscopy field (LSFM). The techniques used in this field allow to study and visualize biomedical objects non-destructively in high-resolution through virtual optical sectioning with sheets of laser light. Fluorescence originating in the cross section of the sheet and sample is recorded orthogonally with a camera. In this paper, the first implementation of LSFM to image biomedical tissue in three dimensions - Orthogonal-Plane Fluorescence Optical Sectioning microscopy (OPFOS) - is discussed. Since then many similar and derived methods have surfaced (SPIM, Ultramicroscopy, HR-OPFOS, mSPIM, DSLM, TSLIM...) which we all briefly discuss. All these optical sectioning methods create images showing histological detail. We illustrate the applicability of LSFM on several specimen types with application in biomedical and life sciences.