Widefield localization fluorescence microscopy for transcranial imaging of cortical perfusion with capillary resolution

Imaging of cerebral vasculature is impeded with the existing fluorescence microscopy methods due to intense light scattering in living tissues and the need for highly invasive craniotomy procedures to resolve structures on a capillary scale. We propose a widefield fluorescence localization microscopy technique for high-resolution transcranial imaging and quantitative assessment of cortical perfusion in mice. The method is based on tracking single fluorescent microparticles sparsely distributed in the blood stream using a simple CMOS camera and a continuous-wave laser source. We demonstrate quantitative transcranial in vivo mapping of the blood flow velocity and direction at capillary level resolution (5 µm) across the entire cortex. The new technique opens a new high-resolution transcranial window into the brain function in health and disease.