Elsevier

Cell Calcium

Volume 30, Issue 6, December 2001, Pages 383-393
Cell Calcium

Regular Article
Construction of a two-photon microscope for video-rate Ca2+ imaging

https://doi.org/10.1054/ceca.2001.0246Get rights and content

Abstract

We describe the construction of a video-rate two-photon laser scanning microscope, compare its performance to a similar confocal microscope, and illustrate its use for imaging local Ca2+ transients from cortical neurons in brain slices. Key features include the use of a Ti-sapphire femtosecond laser allowing continuous tuning over a wide (700–1000 nm) wavelength range, a resonant scanning mirror to permit frame acquisition at 30 Hz, and efficient wide-field fluorescence detection. Two-photon imaging provides compelling advantages over confocal microscopy in terms of improved imaging depth and reduced phototoxicity and photobleaching, but the high cost of commercial instruments has limited their widespread adoption. By constructing one's own system the expense is greatly reduced without sacrifice of performance, and the microscope can be more readily tailored to specific applications.

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    Correspondence to: Dr Ian Parker Laboratory of Cellular andMolecular Neurobiology Department of Neurobiology and Behavior University of California Irvine CA 92697-4550 USA Tel.: +1 949 824 7332; fax: +1 949 824 2447; e-mail: [email protected]

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