title: Second-harmonic imaging of cornea after intrastromal femtosecond laser ablation.
abstract: Nonlinear laser scanning microscopy is widely used for noninvasive imaging in cell biology and tissue physiology. However, multiphoton fluorescence imaging of dense, transparent connective tissue (e.g., cornea) is challenging since sophisticated labeling or slicing is necessary. High-resolution, high-contrast second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging of corneal tissue based on the intrinsic structure of collagen is discussed. The three-dimensional corneal ultrastructure in depths up to hundreds of microns can be probed noninvasively, without any staining or mechanical slicing. As an important application of second harmonic imaging in ophthalmology, the modification of corneal ultrastructure using femtosecond laser intrastromal ablation is systematically investigated to evaluate next-generation refractive surgical approaches.
authors.affiliation: University of Heidelberg, Kirchhoff Institute for Physics, Im Neuenheimer Feld 227, D-69120 Heidelberg, Germany. mhan@urz.uni-heidelberg.de
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Han
authors.forename: Leander
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zickler
authors.forename: Guenter
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Giese
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walter
authors.forename: Frieder H
authors.initials: FH
authors.lastname: Loesel
authors.forename: Josef F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Bille
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D003094:Collagen / Q000528:radiation effects / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D003319:Corneal Stroma / Q000601:surgery* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D048988:Corneal Surgery, Laser / Q000379:methods*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal / Q000379:methods*; D036641:Microscopy, Fluorescence, Multiphoton / Q000379:methods*; D025321:Surgery, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D003094:Collagen