Leica FCM1000 Fiber Confocal Microscopes

Leica Updated: 2009-02-08 RSS
Leica FCM1000 Fiber Confocal Microscopes

In Vivo and In Situ Imaging - Anywhere in the Living Animal

The Leica FCM1000 is the first imaging solution developed for - and fully adapted to - in vivo and in situ small animal imaging.

In vivo observation of live processes requires a high degree of miniaturization for minimally invasive access as well as an ultra-high frame rate for real-time dynamic recording.

With its fibered microprobes the Leica FCM1000 is designed to access virtually anywhere in the living animal. A simple contact with the tissue of interest is enough to generate high-speed recordings of cellular or vascular events.

Key Features

* Plug and play Leica FM Microprobes
* Minimal instrumental setup
* Simple and direct real-time acquisition
* Integrated and straightforward image analysis and quantification

Fibered and Miniaturized Microprobes for Minimal Invasiveness
Imaging live tissue in its physiological environment with the Leica FCM1000 is as simple as placing the microprobe in contact with the site of interest. The flexibility and the minute diameters ot the microprobes enable endoscopic access to any location in the living animal, with minimum animal preparation and extremely limited invasiveness.

Exceptional full-field frame rate ensures high image stability as well as smooth and precise positioning of the field of view. The microprobe can thus be hand-held, or combined to a micromanipulator of stereotaxic apparatus.

Microprobe specifications

* Optical head diameter 0.3 - 4.2 mm
* Lenght 2 m (6 m for MRI-compatible microprobes)
* Slender and flexible
* Resolution 1.8 - 3.9 μm
* Field of view ø 240 - 600 μm
* Working distance 0 - 170 μm
* Optical section 10 - 70 μm
* Plug & play - immediate connection to laser scanning unit - no alignement
* Robust and handy

A Wealth of Applications
The Leica FCM1000 allows genuine in vivo observations, with minimal disturbance of the process under investigation. Physiological envents or patho-physioloical processes can be imaged and quantified as and where they occur.

By introducing the very small microprobes, it is possible to access any location in the living - anesthetized - animal. Contact between the microprobe and a fluorescent tissue can be made externally or endoscopically via hollow organs. For some applications, surgical preparation of the animal is required, usually limited to a millimeter-size skin incision. Endovascular access is possible, based on existing surgical procedures

The extremely limited invasiveness of the technique allows repeated acquisitions on the same animal, with intervals of days or weeks between two time points, resulting in more accurate and relevant logitudinal follow-up, as well as less variability in the quantitative data.

Fields of application:

* Angiogenesis
* Central nervous system
* Stem cells
* Peripheral nervous system
* Cardiovascular research
* Pulmonology
* Tissue engineering
* Urulogy
* Gene expression
* Hematopoiesis
* Cancer research
* Ophtalmology
* Immunology

Watch Life as It Happens
The Leica FCM1000 offers an unsurpassed default full-field frame rate of 12 images per second, for real-time observations of most biological events. For faster aquisitions, the Leica FCM HS module, a hardware and software add-on, allows for increasing the frame rate up to 200 images per second at a reduced field of view.

This unique range of acquisition rates can be combined with time-lapse recordings to capture any combination of short and long time-scales that can occur in biological processes. Ease of use and image stability also rely on a high frame rate, allowing real. time refreshment of the image as the microprobe is scanned over the tissue of interest. With 12 frames per second, the resulting smooth, fluid video of the tissue scanning makes light work of microprobe positioning and field of view selection.

Image stability and dynamic recording are combined to

* Measure axonal regrowth
* Quantify local platelet recruitment
* Record neuron activation
* Characterize vaso-motion
* Monitor cell-to-wall interaction
* Track stem cell migration
* Follow gene expression modulation
* Observe injected bolus arrival

Test

* Measure axonal regrowth
* Quantify local platelet recruitment
* Record neuron activation
* Characterize vaso-motion
* Monitor cell-to-wall interaction
* Track stem cell migration
* Follow gene expression modulation
* Observe injected bolus arrival