SignificanceThe creation of subepithelial voids within scarred vocal folds via ultrafast laser ablation may help in localization of injectable biomaterials toward a clinically viable therapy for vocal fold scarring.AimWe aim to prove that subepithelial voids can be created in a live animal model and that the ablation process does not engender additional scar formation. We demonstrate localization and long-term retention of an injectable biomaterial within subepithelial voids.ApproachA benchtop nonlinear microscope was used to create subepithelial voids within healthy and scarred cheek pouches of four Syrian hamsters. A model biomaterial, polyethylene glycol tagged with rhodamine dye, was then injected into these voids using a custom injection setup. Follow-up imaging studies at 1- and 2-week time points were performed using the same benchtop nonlinear microscope. Subsequent histology assessed void morphology and biomaterial retention.ResultsFocused ultrashort pulses can be used to create large subepithelial voids in vivo. Our analysis suggests that the ablation process does not introduce any scar formation. Moreover, these studies indicate localization, and, more importantly, long-term retention of the model biomaterial injected into these voids. Both nonlinear microscopy and histological examination indicate the presence of biomaterial-filled voids in healthy and scarred cheek pouches 2 weeks postoperation.ConclusionsWe successfully demonstrated subepithelial void formation, biomaterial injection, and biomaterial retention in a live animal model. This pilot study is an important step toward clinical acceptance of a new type of therapy for vocal fold scarring. Future long-term studies on large animals will utilize a miniaturized surgical probe to further assess the clinical viability of such a therapy.
Multiphoton microscopy is the gold standard for deep tissue fluorescence imaging. Long wavelengths enable hundreds of microns deep penetration of excitation light, but the emission fluorescence at shorter wavelengths encounters scattering before detection. While not being an issue for point scanning geometries, for wide-field geometries emission light scattering degrades the image quality. In this work, we use temporally focused pattered excitations to spatially encode image information before emission light scattering. Upon detection, images are reconstructed computationally by solving a linear inverse problem. We further improve our results by learning inverse solvers and optimal patterns through physics-based deep learning.
Rett Syndrome (RTT) is a pervasive, X-linked neurodevelopmental disorder that predominantly affects girls. It is mostly caused by a sporadic mutation in the gene encoding methyl CpG-binding protein 2 (MeCP2).The clinical features of RTT are most commonly reported to emerge between the ages of 6-18 months and implicating RTT as a disorder of postnatal development. However, a variety of recent evidence from our lab and others demonstrates that RTT phenotypes are present at the earliest stages of brain development including neurogenesis, migration, and patterning in addition to stages of synaptic and circuit development and plasticity. We have used RTT patient-derived induced pluripotent stem cells to generate 3D human cerebral organoids that can serve as a model for human neurogenesis in vitro. We aim to expand on our existing findings in order to determine aberrancies at individual stages of neurogenesis by performing structural and immunocytochemical staining in isogenic control and MeCP2-deficient organoids. In addition, we aim to use Third Harmonic Generation (THG) microscopy as a label-free, nondestructive 3D tissue visualization method in order to gain a complete understanding of the structural complexity that underlies human neurogenesis.
As a proof of concept, we have performed THG imaging in healthy intact human cerebral organoids cleared with SWITCH. We acquired an intrinsic THG signal with the following laser configurations: 400 kHz repetition rate, 65 fs pulse width laser at 1350 nm wavelength. In these THG images, nuclei are clearly delineated and cross sections demonstrate the depth penetration capacity (< 1mm) that extends throughout the organoid. Imaging control and MeCP2-deficient human cerebral organoids in 2D sections reveals structural and protein expression-based alterations that we expect will be clearly elucidated via both THG and three-photon fluorescence microscopy.
Background: Deep tissue ablation is the next challenge in ultrafast laser microsurgery. By focusing ultrafast pulses below the tissue surface one can create an ablation void confined to the focal volume. However, as the ablation depth increases in a scattering tissue, increase in the required power can trigger undesired nonlinear phenomena out of focus that restricts our ability to ablate beyond a maximum ablation depth of few scattering lengths. Optical clearing (OC) might reduce the intensity and increase the maximal ablation depth by lowering the refractive index mismatch, and therefore reducing scattering. Some efforts to ablate deeper showed out of focus damage, while others used brutal mechanical methods for clearing. Our clinical goal is to create voids in the scarred vocal folds and inject a biomaterial to bring back the tissue elasticity and restore phonation.
Materials and methods: Fresh porcine vocal folds were excised and applied a biocompatible OC agent (75% glycerol). Collimated transmittance was monitored. The tissue was optically cleared and put under the microscope for ablation threshold measurements at different depths.
Results: The time after which the tissue was optically cleared was roughly two hours. Fitting the threshold measurements to an exponential decay graph indicated that the scattering length of the tissue increased to 83±16 μm, which is more than doubling the known scattering length for normal tissue.
Conclusion: Optical clearing with Glycerol increases the tissue scattering length and therefore reduces the energy for ablation and increases the maximal ablation depth. This technique can potentially improve clinical microsurgery.
The growing interest in performing high-resolution, deep-tissue imaging has galvanized the use of longer excitation wavelengths and three-photon-based techniques in nonlinear imaging modalities. This study presents a threefold improvement in maximum imaging depth of ex vivo porcine vocal folds using third-harmonic generation (THG) microscopy at 1552-nm excitation wavelength compared to two-photon microscopy (TPM) at 776-nm excitation wavelength. The experimental, analytical, and Monte Carlo simulation results reveal that THG improves the maximum imaging depth observed in TPM significantly from 140 to 420 μm in a highly scattered medium, reaching the expected theoretical imaging depth of seven extinction lengths. This value almost doubles the previously reported normalized imaging depths of 3.5 to 4.5 extinction lengths using three-photon-based imaging modalities. Since tissue absorption is substantial at the excitation wavelength of 1552 nm, this study assesses the tissue thermal damage during imaging by obtaining the depth-resolved temperature distribution through a numerical simulation incorporating an experimentally obtained thermal relaxation time (τ). By shuttering the laser for a period of 2τ, the numerical algorithm estimates a maximum temperature increase of ∼2°C at the maximum imaging depth of 420 μm. The paper demonstrates that THG imaging using 1552 nm as an illumination wavelength with effective thermal management proves to be a powerful deep imaging modality for highly scattering and absorbing tissues, such as scarred vocal folds.
Toward developing a new method for restoring tissue viscoelasticity in scarred vocal folds, we previously proposed a method to localize biomaterials within subepithelial voids ablated using ultrafast laser pulses. The clinical implementation of this method necessitates the quantification of the laser parameters for ablating scarred tissue. Here, we present a comprehensive study of these parameters including ablation threshold and bubble lifetime in healthy and scarred tissues. We also present a new method for extracting tissue-specific ablation threshold and scattering lengths of different tissue layers. This method involves finding the ablation threshold at multiple depths and solving the equations based on Beer’s law of light attenuation for each depth to estimate the unknown parameters. Measured threshold fluences were 1.75 J/cm 2 for vocal folds and 0.5 J/cm 2 for cheek pouches for 3-ps, 776-nm laser pulses. Scarred pouches exhibited 30% lower threshold than healthy pouches, possibly due to the degraded mechanical properties of scarred collagen during wound healing. The analysis of tissue architecture indicated a direct correlation between the ablation threshold and tissue tensile strength and that the bubble lifetime is inversely related to tissue stiffness. Overall, this study sheds light on the required laser parameters for successful implementation of ultrafast laser ablation for phonosurgery.
Four-wave mixing techniques are applied to Ga1-xMnxAs, providing new insight into the fundamental properties of the III-Mn-V semiconductors. Clear signatures of (s,p)-d hybridization associated with the MnGa substitutional impurity are observed in the spectrum of the four-wave mixing signal. Experiments on a ferromagnetic sample show no evidence of hole occupation in the valence band for x = 5%. A photon echo is observed on the interband transition, despite the strong exchange coupling and large defect density in this system. Rapid dephasing associated with Mn-hole spin-flip scattering is observed, with a measured upper bound on the spin-flip scattering time of 40 fs. An excitonic signature tied to many-body effects is observed in LT-GaAs.
Vocal fold scarring is one of the major causes of voice disorders and may arise from overuse or post-surgical wound
healing. One promising treatment utilizes the injection of soft biomaterials aimed at restoring viscoelasticity of the
outermost vibratory layer of the vocal fold, superficial lamina propria (SLP). However, the density of the tissue and the
required injection pressure impair proper localization of the injected biomaterial in SLP. To enhance treatment
effectiveness, we are investigating a technique to image and ablate sub-epithelial planar voids in vocal folds using
ultrafast laser pulses to better localize the injected biomaterial. It is challenging to optimize the excitation wavelength to
perform imaging and ablation at depths suitable for clinical use. Here, we compare maximum imaging depth using two
photon autofluorescence and second harmonic generation with third-harmonic generation imaging modalities for healthy
porcine vocal folds. We used a home-built inverted nonlinear scanning microscope together with a high repetition rate (2
MHz) ultrafast fiber laser (Raydiance Inc.). We acquired both two-photon autofluorescence and second harmonic
generation signals using 776 nm wavelength and third harmonic generation signals using 1552 nm excitation
wavelength. We observed that maximum imaging depth with 776 nm wavelength is significantly improved from 114 μm
to 205 μm when third harmonic generation is employed using 1552 nm wavelength, without any observable damage in
the tissue.
Vocal fold scarring is a predominant cause of voice disorders yet lacks a reliable treatment method. The injection of soft biomaterials to improve mechanical compliance of the vocal folds has emerged as a promising treatment. Here, we study the use of precise femtosecond laser microsurgery to ablate subsurface voids, with a goal of eventually creating a plane in dense subepithelial scar tissue into which biomaterials can be injected for their improved localization. Specifically, we demonstrate the ablation of small subepithelial voids in porcine vocal fold tissue up to 120 µm below the surface such that larger voids in the active area of vocal fold mucosa ( ∼ 3×10 mm2) can eventually be ablated in about 3 min. We use sub-µJ, 776-nm pulses from a compact femtosecond fiber laser system operating at a 500-kHz repetition rate. The use of relatively high repetition rates, with a small number of overlapping pulses, is critical to achieving ablation in a very short time while still avoiding significant heat deposition. Additionally, we use the same laser for nonlinear optical imaging to provide visual feedback of tissue structure and to confirm successful ablation. The ablation parameters, including pulse duration, pulse energy, spot size, and scanning speed, are comparable to the specifications in our recently developed miniaturized femtosecond laser surgery probes, illustrating the feasibility of developing an ultrafast laser surgical instrument.
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