Integrated coherent Raman scattering and multiphoton microscopy for label-free imaging of the dentin in the tooth

We report the implementation of a unique multimodal nonlinear optical microscopy (i.e., coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), second harmonic generation (SHG), third harmonic generation (THG) and two photon excitation fluorescence (TPEF)) platform for label-free imaging of dentin. A picosecond tunable laser together with an OPO is used as the excitation source for simultaneously multimodal imaging. CARS shows similar information as TPEF in dentin, but it has a higher sectioning performance than TPEF and thus it is a good alternative for TPEF. Microtubule structure is revealed nearby dentin enamel junction (DEJ) from the multimodal images. This work demonstrates that combining different nonlinear optical imaging modalities can provide new insights into the understanding of morphological structures and biochemical/biomolecular distributions of the dentine without the need of labeling.

我们报道了一种独特的多模态非线性光学显微镜（即相干反斯托克斯拉曼散射（CARS）、二次谐波产生（SHG）、三次谐波产生（THG）和双光子激发荧光（TPEF））平台用于牙本质无标记成像的实现。一台皮秒可调谐激光器与一个光学参量振荡器（OPO）一起被用作激发源，以实现同时多模态成像。在牙本质中，CARS显示出与TPEF相似的信息，但它比TPEF具有更高的切片性能，因此它是TPEF的一个良好替代。从多模态图像中，在牙本质 - 釉质界（DEJ）附近揭示了微管结构。这项工作表明，结合不同的非线性光学成像模式可以为理解牙本质的形态结构以及生化/生物分子分布提供新的见解，且无需标记。