Dennis Wirth, Brook Byrd, Boyu Meng, Rendall R. Strawbridge, Kimberley S. Samkoe, and Scott C. Davis
Biomed Opt Express. 2020 Dec 16;12(1):395-408. doi: 10.1364/BOE.410810. eCollection 2021 Jan 1.
ABSTRACT
Whole-animal fluorescence cryo-imaging is an established technique that enables visualization of the biodistribution of labeled drugs, contrast agents, functional reporters and cells in detail. However, many tissues produce endogenous autofluorescence, which can confound interpretation of the cryo-imaging volumes. We describe a multi-channel, hyperspectral cryo-imaging system that acquires densely-sampled spectra at each pixel in the 3-dimensional stack. This information enables the use of spectral unmixing to isolate the fluorophore-of-interest from autofluorescence and/or other fluorescent reporters. In phantoms and a glioma xenograft model, we show that the approach improves detection limits, increases tumor contrast, and can dramatically alter image interpretation.
PMID:33520389 | PMC:PMC7818953 | DOI:10.1364/BOE.410810