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A multiscale Mueller polarimetry module for a stereo zoom microscope

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A Correction to this article was published on 02 January 2020

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Abstract

Mueller polarimetry is a quantitative polarized light imaging modality that is capable of label-free visualization of tissue pathology, does not require extensive sample preparation, and is suitable for wide-field tissue analysis. It holds promise for selected applications in biomedicine, but polarimetry systems are often constrained by limited end-user accessibility and/or long-imaging times. In order to address these needs, we designed a multiscale-polarimetry module that easily couples to a commercially available stereo zoom microscope. This paper describes the module design and provides initial polarimetry imaging results from a murine preclinical breast cancer model and human breast cancer samples. The resultant polarimetry module has variable resolution and field of view, is low-cost, and is simple to switch in or out of a commercial microscope. The module can reduce long imaging times by adopting the main imaging approach used in pathology: scanning at low resolution to identify regions of interest, then at high resolution to inspect the regions in detail. Preliminary results show how the system can aid in region of interest identification for pathology, but also highlight that more work is needed to understand how tissue structures of pathological interest appear in Mueller polarimetry images across varying spatial zoom scales.

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Change history

  • 02 January 2020

    Unfortunately, the eighth author James Jonkman has been missed in the published article.

  • 02 January 2020

    Unfortunately, the eighth author James Jonkman has been missed in the published article.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thanks David Inman and Dr. Suzanne Ponik of the UW-Madison for providing the murine mammary gland samples. Also, thanks are due to James Jonkman of the Advanced Optical Microscopy Facility (Toronto) for help with the stereo zoom microscope. We acknowledge Drs. Patricia Keely, Jeremy Bredfeldt, Joseph Szulczewski and Andreas Velten of the UW-Madison for useful discussions on the project. Funding is acknowledged from the Morgridge Institute for Research, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (AV) and NIH U54DK104310 (KWE). The authors also thank the UW Translational Research Initiatives in Pathology Laboratory, in part supported by the UW Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and UWCCC Grant P30 CA014520, for use of its facilities and services.

Funding

This study was funded by Morgridge Institute for Research (KWE), Canadian Institutes of Health Research (AV) and NIH U54DK104310 (KWE).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Adam Gribble and Michael A. Pinkert have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Adam Gribble, Jared Westreich & Alex Vitkin

  2. Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, USA

    Michael A. Pinkert, Yuming Liu, Adib Keikhosravi & Kevin W. Eliceiri

  3. Department of Medical Physics, University of Wisconsin at Madison, Madison, USA

    Michael A. Pinkert & Kevin W. Eliceiri

  4. Morgridge Institute for Research, Madison, WI, USA

    Michael A. Pinkert, Adib Keikhosravi & Kevin W. Eliceiri

  5. General Surgical Oncology Program, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Mohammadali Khorasani

  6. Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Sharon Nofech-Mozes

  7. Division of Biophysics and Bioimaging, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Alex Vitkin

  8. Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    Alex Vitkin

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  1. Adam Gribble
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kevin W. Eliceiri or Alex Vitkin.

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All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Mouse mammary samples were obtained after acquiring approval from the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approval at the University of Wisconsin at Madison (WI, USA). The human breast samples were approved under institutional ethics and biosafety approval obtained from Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Sunnybrook REB determined that an informed consent form was not required for this study.

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Gribble, A., Pinkert, M.A., Westreich, J. et al. A multiscale Mueller polarimetry module for a stereo zoom microscope. Biomed. Eng. Lett. 9, 339–349 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-019-00116-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-019-00116-w

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