Transillumination spatially modulated illumination microscopy for human chromosome imaging

Human chromosome analysis is an essential task in cytogenetics, especially in prenatal screening, genetic syndrome diagnosis, cancer pathology research and mutagen dosimetry. Chromosomal analysis begins with the creation of a karyotype, which is a layout of chromosome images organized by decreasing size in pairs. Both manual and automatic classification of chromosomes are limited by the resolution of the microscope and imaging system used. One way to improve the results of classification and even detect subtleties now remaining undetected, is to enhance the resolution of the images. It is possible to achieve lateral resolution beyond the classical limit, by using spatially modulated illumination (SMI) in a wide-field, non-confocal microscope. In this case, the sample is illuminated with spatially modulated light, which makes normally inaccessible high-resolution information visible in the observed image by shifting higher frequencies within the OTF limits of the microscope. Although, SMI microscopes have been reported in the past, this manuscript reports the development of a transillumination microscope for opaque, non-fluorescent samples. The illumination path consisted of a light source illuminating a ruled grating which was subsequently imaged on the sample. The grating was mounted on a rotating and translating stage so that the magnification and rotation of the pattern could be adjusted. The imaging lens was a 1.25 NA oil immersion objective. Test samples showed resolution improvement, as judged from a comparison of the experimentally obtained FWHM. Further studies using smaller fringe distance or laser interference pattern illumination will be evaluated to further optimize the SMI results.