Fluorescence lifetime tomography of live cells expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein embedded in a scattering medium exhibiting background autofluorescence

Opt Lett. 2007 Jul 15;32(14):2034-6. doi: 10.1364/ol.32.002034.

Abstract

We present a novel fluorescence lifetime tomography system applied to a highly scattering autofluorescent phantom containing live cells expressing the fluorophore enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). The fluorescence signal was excited using a fiber-laser-pumped supercontinuum source and detected using wide-field time gating imaging. To facilitate rapid 3D reconstruction of the fluorescence lifetime distribution, the time-resolved data were Fourier-transformed in time to give complex functions that formed a data set for the Fourier domain reconstruction. Initially the presence of an unspecified background autofluorescence signal impeded reconstruction of the lifetime distribution, but we show that this problem can be addressed using a simple iterative technique.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Fluorescence
  • Fourier Analysis
  • Green Fluorescent Proteins / chemistry*
  • Image Processing, Computer-Assisted
  • Imaging, Three-Dimensional
  • Mice
  • Models, Statistical
  • NIH 3T3 Cells
  • Optics and Photonics*
  • Phantoms, Imaging
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Time Factors
  • Tomography / methods*

Substances

  • Green Fluorescent Proteins