Genetically Encodable Contrast Agents for Optical Coherence Tomography.

ABSTRACT: Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has gained wide adoption in biological research and medical imaging due to its exceptional tissue penetration, 3D imaging speed, and rich contrast. However, OCT plays a relatively small role in molecular and cellular imaging due to the lack of suitable biomolecular contrast agents. In particular, while the green fluorescent protein has provided revolutionary capabilities to fluorescence microscopy by connecting it to cellular functions such as gene expression, no equivalent reporter gene is currently available for OCT. Here, we introduce gas vesicles, a class of naturally evolved gas-filled protein nanostructures, as genetically encodable OCT contrast agents. The differential refractive index of their gas compartments relative to surrounding aqueous tissu

SUBMITTER: Lu GJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7685218 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature