Intravital Laser-scanning Two-photon and Confocal Microscopy for Biomedical Research

Abstract

Intravital microscopy is a high-resolution imaging technique based on laser-scanning two-photon and confocal microscopy, which allows dynamic 3D cellular-level imaging of various biological processes in a living animal in vivo . This unique capability allows biomedical researchers to directly verify a hypothesis in a natural in vivo microenvironment at the cellular level in a physiological setting. During the last decade, intravital microscopy has become an indispensable technique in several fields of biomedical sciences such as molecular and cell biology, immunology, neuroscience, developmental, and tumor biology. The most distinct advantage of intravital microscopy is its capability to provide a longitudinal view of disease progression at the cellular-level with repeated intravital imaging of a single animal over time by saving the images after each session.