title: Data-adaptive image-denoising for detecting and quantifying nanoparticle entry in mucosal tissues through intravital 2-photon microscopy.
abstract: Intravital 2-photon microscopy of mucosal membranes across which nanoparticles enter the organism typically generates noisy images. Because the noise results from the random statistics of only very few photons detected per pixel, it cannot be avoided by technical means. Fluorescent nanoparticles contained in the tissue may be represented by a few bright pixels which closely resemble the noise structure. We here present a data-adaptive method for digital denoising of datasets obtained by 2-photon microscopy. The algorithm exploits both local and non-local redundancy of the underlying ground-truth signal to reduce noise. Our approach automatically adapts the strength of noise suppression in a data-adaptive way by using a Bayesian network. The results show that the specific adaption to both signal and noise characteristics improves the preservation of fine structures such as nanoparticles while less artefacts were produced as compared to reference algorithms. Our method is applicable to other imaging modalities as well, provided the specific noise characteristics are known and taken into account.
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Jena, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Anatomy II, Teichgraben 7, 07740 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Torsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bölke
authors.affiliation: University of Lübeck, Institute of Biomedical Optics, Peter-Monnik-Weg 4, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Lisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Krapf
authors.affiliation: Olympus Winter & Ibe GmbH, R&D Optical Design, Kuehnstrasse 61, 22045 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Regina
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Orzekowsky-Schroeder
authors.affiliation: University of Hamburg, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Grindelallee 117, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Tobias
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Vossmeyer
authors.affiliation: University of Hamburg, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Grindelallee 117, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jelena
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dimitrijevic
authors.affiliation: University of Hamburg, Institute of Physical Chemistry, Grindelallee 117, 20146 Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Horst
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Weller
authors.affiliation: University of Lübeck, Institute of Anatomy, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schüth
authors.affiliation: University of Lübeck, Institute of Anatomy, Ratzeburger Allee 160, 23538 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Klinger
authors.affiliation: University of Lübeck, Institute of Biomedical Optics, Peter-Monnik-Weg 4, 23562 Lübeck, Germany.
authors.forename: Gereon
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hüttmann
authors.affiliation: University Hospital Jena, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Institute of Anatomy II, Teichgraben 7, 07740 Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gebert
keywords: 2-photon microscopy (2PM); denoising; in vivo imaging; nanoparticles; quantum dots; signal to noise ratio (SNR)