Abstract

In visualizing transparent biological cells and tissues, the phase contrast microscope and its related techniques have been a cornerstone of nearly every cell biology laboratory. However, phase contrast methods are inherently qualitative and lack in 3-D imaging capability. We introduce a novel tomographic microscopy for quantitative three-dimensional mapping of refractive index in live cells and tissues using a phase-shifting laser interferometric microscope with variable illumination angle. With this instrument, we performed noninvasive quantification of the hemoglobin content in the red blood cells as the disease progression of malaria infection.

© 2009 Optical Society of America