Deep tissue imaging remains challenging, especially for thick media, due to spherical aberrations induced on focused beams by the tissue. In this framework we propose a miniaturized in-vivo imaging window composed of high dioptric power microlenses coupled to micro-scaffold, which were fabricated by two-photon polymerization (2PP) in the biocompatible photoresist SZ2080. We adopt a single-irradiation strategy for the fabrication of the whole structure: We first irradiate the micro-scaffold on the bottom side of the chip and afterwards the microlenses on the top. For the microlenses we adopted a hybrid approach by combining the 2PP of the micro lenses surface with a subsequent UV crosslinking of the inner volume. We explored different lenses profiles (plano-convex and parabolic) with variable parameters like diameter and focal lengths, to optimize the imaging characteristics. We envisage that these imaging windows will open the way to direct and continuous optical inspection of biological processes in vivo.
In the context of biomaterials, small-molecules and drugs testing, intravital microscopy allows to quantify in-vivo the immune reaction, reducing the number of laboratory animals required to statistically validate the product. However, fluorescence microscopy is affected by limited tissue penetration due to light scattering and by optical aberrations, induced on focused beams, by the animal tissue surrounding the implant. In this framework, we developed a system of microlenses coupled to microscaffolds, both incorporated in a miniaturized imaging window. The chip is designed to act as an in-situ microscope objective with the aim to overcome the restrictions of in-vivo imaging (i.e. spherical aberrations) and to allow multiple biological observations in the same animal (by including fluorescent beacons). The device is fabricated by two-photon polymerizing a biocompatible photoresist called SZ2080. The microlenses are manufactured by the concentric polar scanning of the laser beam to realize their outer surface, followed by the UV bulk polymerization of their inner SZ2080. We preliminarily characterized the imaging capabilities of our implantable system on live cells cultured on flat substrates and 3D microscaffolds by coupling it to low magnification objectives. The microlenses optical quality is sufficient to induce non-linear excitation and collect two-photon excitation images with the same level of laser intensity and signal-to-noise ratio. Remarkably, they allow to efficiently excite the fluorescence of labelled human fibroblasts collecting high resolution magnified images. These results will open the way to the application of implanted micro-optics for the real-time and continuous in-vivo observation of complex biological processes.
We report new methods of two-photon polymerization of microlenses with high numerical aperture, large diameter and good optical quality. We characterize the aberrations of these lenses that, coupled to raster scanning optical microscopes, allow two-photon excitation imaging of cells. In-vivo non-linear imaging will be also discussed, opening the possibility to use these micro-lenses in implants for the continuous inspection of biological dynamics in vivo.
The current protocols for biocompatibility assessment of biomaterials, based on histopathology, require the sacrifice of a huge number of laboratory animals with an unsustainable ethical burden and remarkable cost. Intravital microscopy techniques can be used to study implantation outcomes in real time though with limited capabilities of quantification in longitudinal studies, mainly restricted by the light penetration and the spatial resolution in deep tissues. We present the outline and first tests of a novel chip which aims to enable longitudinal studies of the reaction to the biomaterial implant. The chip is composed of a regular reference microstructure fabricated via two-photon polymerization in the SZ2080 resist. The geometrical design and the planar raster spacing largely determine the mechanical and spectroscopic features of the microstructures. The development, in-vitro characterization and in vivo validation of the Microatlas is performed in living chicken embryos by fluorescence microscopy 3 and 4 days after the implant; the quantification of cell infiltration inside the Microatlas demonstrates its potential as novel scaffold for tissue regeneration.
We exploit two-photon laser writing to fabricate 3D biocompatible proteinaceous microstructures (∼1 to 50 𝜇m in lateral size) with tunable elasticity and photo-thermal activity in the near-infrared. Structure printing relies on the photo-crosslinking of the protein bovine serum albumin (BSA, 50 mg/mL) initiated by the Rose Bengal dye (2 mM concentration), whereas photo-thermal functionality is achieved by the dispersion of non-spherically symmetric metallic nanoparticles into the ink.
Aiming at a subsequent application of the fabricated microstructures as platforms for cell growth and stimulation, we carry out a thorough characterization of their mechanical and photo-thermal properties. Preliminary data obtained by AFM indentation have quantified the structures Young modulus in the broad 100-1000 kPa range depending on the BSA concentration. Stiffness is further characterized here by subjecting the fabricated microstructures to steady flow in a microfluidic device, and by quantifying their real-time bending by a conventional transmitted light microscope. In parallel, we focus on the optimization of the photo-thermal activity of the structures. Anisotropic gold nanoparticles, dispersed in the ink, get trapped into the structure during photo-crosslinking and lead to localized heat release upon excitation in the near-infrared. The temperature increment is rapidly (∼1 s) reached and maintained under continuous wave laser irradiation at 800 nm; the amplitude of the temperature variation is quantified as a function of the incident laser power by means of infrared thermography and is correlated to both the structure thickness and the nanoparticles concentration. The resulting spatially confined heat loads could be exploited to induce highly localized responses in cells. In this direction, proteinaceous photo-thermal microstructures can be used to physically induce the differentiation of cells (e.g. neurons or fibroblasts) in a spatially controlled manner.
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