High-tech Method Allows Rapid Imaging of Functions in Living Brain

Researchers studying cancer and other invasive diseases rely on high-resolution imaging to see tumors and other activity deep within the body’s tissues. Using a new, high-speed, high-resolution imaging method, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis were able to see blood flow, blood oxygenation, oxygen metabolism and other functions inside a living mouse brain at faster rates than ever before in a recent study published in the journal Nature Methods. Using photoacoustic microscopy (PAM), a single-wavelength, pulse-width-based technique, researchers were able to take images of blood oxygenation 50-times faster than their previous results using fast-scanning PAM; 100-times faster than their acoustic-resolution system and more than 500-times faster than phosphorescence-lifetime-based two-photon microscopy (TPM). However, those methods have speed and resolution limits, according to the lead researcher of the study. To make up for these limitations, researchers implemented fast-functional PAM, which allowed them to get high-resolution, high-speed images of a living mouse brain through an intact skull. This method achieved a lateral-spatial resolution of five-times finer than the lab’s previous fast-scanning system; 25-times finer than its previous acoustic-resolution system and more than 35-times finer than ultrasound-array-based photoacoustic computed tomography. To read more about this study, click here.