Raman microscopy1,2 is emerging as a powerful label-free method to image biological tissues based on the characteristic frequencies of various chemical bonds in biomolecules. Owing to its non-invasive and well-adaptive imaging capability, Raman microscopy has been widely used for imaging lipid-enriched components in biological tissues like myelin sheath3,4,5, adipocytes6,7, and lipid droplets8,9,10. Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) signal acquired as stimulated Raman gain (SRG) or stimulated Raman loss (SRL) is background-free, showing perfect spectral resemblance to spontaneous Raman scattering11,12. In addition, SRL and SRG are linearly dependent on the analyte concentration, allowing for quantitative analysis of biochemical components9,11,13. Two-photon excited fluorescence microscopy (TPEF) has been widely used for in vivo biological imaging owing to its inherent optical sectioning capability, deep penetration depth, and low phototoxicity14,15,16. However, the performance of TPEF imaging depends on the characteristics of fluorescent tags, and the number of resolvable colors is limited due to the broadband fluorescence spectra8,17,18,19. Label-free SRS imaging and fluorescence-based TPEF imaging are two complementary imaging modalities, and their combination can provide abundant biophysical and biochemical information of tissues. These two imaging modalities are both based on the nonlinear optical (NLO) processes, which allows simple integration in one microscope system. The combination of the SRS and TPEF imaging, the so-called dual-modal imaging, enables high-dimensional imaging and profiling of cells and tissues, facilitating a comprehensive understanding of complex biological systems. Specifically, picosecond (ps) SRS microscopy can achieve chemical-bond imaging with high spectral resolution compared with femtosecond (fs) SRS technique11, allowing to differentiate multiple biochemical components in biological tissue, especially in the crowded fingerprint region20,21. In addition, compared with another commonly used dual-modal NLO microscope system with integration of coherent anti-Stokes scattering (CARS) microscope, SRS shows superior performance to CARS in terms of spectral and image interpretation as well as detection sensitivity11. The SRS-TPEF microscope has been used as a powerful tool to study various biological systems, such as Caenorhabditis elegans9,22, Xenopus laevis tadpole brain5, mouse brain23,24, spinal cord25,26, peripheral nerve27, and adipose tissue7, etc.
The spinal cord together with the brain makes up the central nervous system (CNS). Visualizing cellular activities in the CNS in vivo under physiological and pathological conditions is critical for understanding the mechanisms of CNS disorders28,29,30 and for developing corresponding therapies31,32,33. Myelin sheath, which wraps and insulates axons for high-speed action potential conduction, plays a significant role in the development of the CNS. Demyelination is thought of as a hallmark in white matter disorders, such as multiple sclerosis34. In addition, after spinal cord injury35, myelin debris can modulate macrophage activation, contributing to chronic inflammation and secondary injury36. Therefore, in vivo imaging of myelin sheath together with neurons and glial cells in living mouse models is of great help to understand the dynamic processes in CNS disorders.
In this protocol, the fundamental setup procedures of a home-built TPEF-SRS microscope are described and the dual-modal in vivo imaging methods for mouse spinal cord are introduced.