The hybrid optical and photoacoustic microscopy: A novel system to image morphological and photoacoustic characteristics of cells

Optical resolution photoacoustic microscopy (OR-PAM) can achieve an optical-dependent high lateral resolution (<1 µm) and visualize photoacoustic (PA) property at single-cell level. The spatial resolvability of the PA imaging is expected to precisely characterize biological activities of cells such as their interactions with drugs and contrast agents by comparing the acquired PA characteristics with the cell's morphology. However, since the conventional OR-PAM systems only visualize objects that generate PA signals, it was difficult to acquire a PA image and an optical morphological image simultaneously. Here, we report a novel system of the hybrid optical / PA microscopy that can acquire morphological and PA characteristics of cells at the same time. The performance of the developed system was validated by measuring a USAF1951 target and bovine red blood cells.