High-fidelity optical diffraction tomography of live organisms using non-toxic tunable refractive index media

Optical diffraction tomography (ODT) enables the three-dimensional (3D) refractive index (RI) reconstruction. However, when the RI difference between a sample and a medium increases, effects of light scattering become significant, preventing the acquisition of high-quality and accurate RI reconstructions. Herein, we present a method for high-fidelity ODT by introducing non-toxic RI matching media. Optimally reducing the RI contrast enhances the fidelity and accuracy of 3D RI reconstruction, enabling visualization of the morphology and intra-organization of live biological samples without producing toxic effects. We validate our method using various biological organisms, including C. albicans and C. elegans. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=139 SRC="FIGDIR/small/492426v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (45K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a6b4d4org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a9ec7borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1e4a795org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b663aa_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG