In this second session of the IVM webinar series, we take a deeper look at the IVM all-in-one intravital microscope. The IVM system is a carefully engineered state-of-the-art intravital fluorescence microscopy platform optimized to perform real-time imaging of dynamic phenomena in in vivo tissues at a cellular level. This technique can serve as a next generation core technology to elucidate the pathophysiology of various human diseases and assist in the discovery of new cures. We will review the different modules of the system allowing for intravital confocal and/or two-photon imaging, along with the features and benefits of each set-up.
Key Features
All-in-one intravital microscopy system with a flexible design for modification and updates
Optimized for in vivo observation of dynamic processes in mouse models of human disease
Four-color simultaneous confocal/two-photon imaging
Sub-µm image resolution and ultrafast video-rate imaging (max. 100 fps - 512x512 pixels)
Integrated automatic high-precision motion artifact compensation
Key Applications
In Vivo 4D cell imaging, tracking and monitoring
In Vivo visualization of dynamic molecular & cellular mechanisms
In Vivo efficacy monitoring of novel drug compound
In Vivo monitoring of material delivery target tissues
In Vivo real-time imaging of microcirculation
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Conclusions
Optical imaging has excellent resolution but poor penetration
depth
Propagation of light through biological tissue is affected by
hemoglobin and water
The optimal window for in vivo optical imaging lies between 600 and
1000 nm
Fluorescence is the commonly used optical technique for in vivo
imaging
Up to 4 fluorophores can be imaged simultaneously when chosen
carefully to avoid spectral overlap
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Intravital Microscopy | What?
For cancer and drug development, intravital microscopy enables a direct imaging analysis of the tumor development and drug delivery
to target tissue as well as efficacy, and mode of action (MOA) of new therapeutic candidates at a microscopic, cellular level in various
preclinical model of human disease.
Cancer Metastasis - CTC
Cancer cell dissemination to circulation
Drug Delivery - Nanoparticle
Anti-cancer nanoparticle delivery
Circulating
Tumor cell (CTC)
Cancer ll
Stromal cell
Drug carrier
Cancer cell
Vessel
Bone Marrow
Transplanted BM cell, HSPC
cell
H2B
Sinus
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Skin
Inflammatory response
KARS
Granulocyte
Intravital Microscopy | What?
Intravital microscopy enables dynamic 3D imaging of various cellular-level dynamics such as cell
trafficking, cell-cell interaction, and cell-microenvironment interaction inside the living body in
vivo, providing a new insight in the processes of human disease development.
Cancer Xenograft - T cell
Triple Negative Human Breast Cancer
T cell
Cancer
cell
Vessel
Lung
Microcirculation in Sepsis Model
Neutrophil
Blood flow
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IVIM Technology | Who?
Intravital Imaging of Various Organs in Human DiseaseAnimal Model
Real-time Intravital Imaging
Endomicroscopy
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=RRDHF9oAAAAJ&hl=en
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IVIM Technology | When?
2017.06
• Founded
• KAIST Munji
Campus
2017.08
• Series A Investment
(2.7mil.USD/30억원)
2017.09
• Exclusive Licensing
Technology from KAIST
2018.07
2018.02
• Establishment
Seoul Marketing
Office
2018. 09
• First Release All-in-One IVM
IVM-C/IVM-CMmodel
2018.11
• First Installation IVM-C
model
SNU Bundang Hosp.
R&D center
2020.12 | Cumulative Sales
• IVM System | 2 Mil USD
- SNU Med. School / IBS / Curacle, etc
• IVM Imaging Service | 300k USD
- Academia (University, Hospital)
Industry (Bio-tech, Pharmaceutical Company)
- Total 21 projects, completed/on-going
2019.09
2019.02 2019.10
2020.02-08
2020.07
http://imnews.imbc.com/replay/2018/nwdesk/article/4846789_22663.html
• Establishment
R&D Center
• New Model Release Multi-Photon IVM
IVM-M/ IVM-MSmodel
• New Installation IVM-CM
model
SNU Medical School
Yongon Campus
• Series B Investment
(7.3mil.USD/80억원)
• New Installation
IVM-C/M/MS model
YMC, AMC, IBS, KAIST
Knotus, Curacle, etc
• USAsite Installation
IVM-MS model
Harvard Med. School
Boston, MA, USA
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IVIM’s All-in-One Intravital Microscopy (IVM) System
IVIM Technology | What?
All-in-onesinglebox package
for easy installation,operationandmaintenance
Co-optimizedH/W and S/W
for superbintravitalimagingperformance
• Integrateddevices for live animalmaintenance
• No limitationin imagingvarious internalorgans
• Ultrafast imagingspeed
• Live tissue motioncompensation
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IVIM Technology | Product Lines Comparison
Specifications IVM-C IVM-M IVM-CM IVM-MS
Confocal laser Yes No Yes No
Tunable two-photon laser No Yes Yes No
Fixed two-photo laser No No No Yes (920nm)
Fluorescence Detector Confocal Two-Photon Both Two-Photon
Scan head Polygonal mirror, Galvano scanner
Imaging head Max. 6 objectives
FOV 100x100 um^2 / 10x10 mm^2
Motion correction X, Y, Z, and T motion
3D stage range 50,000 x 50,000 x 75,000 um
Imaging speed 30 fps @ 512 x 512 pixels (Max. 100 fps), 15 fps @ 1,024 x 1,024 pixels (Max. 50 fps)
Fully integrated software Yes
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Total Darkness with Black-Out Curtain
34
Sliding black-out curtain protects system from potentially polluting ambient light during imaging
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Platform for Live Animal Maintenance
Body Temperature Monitoring & Feedback Heater Control: Rectal Probe & Body Plate Heater
Imaging Tissue Temperature Monitoring & Heater Control: 2 Indicators & Cover Glass Heater
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Software | 3D rendering
Confocal Microscopy (IVM-C), Z-stack
Adiponectin-Cre x mTmG SF44 Adiponectin-Cre x mTmG SF44
3D Rendering, Z-stack
In Vivo,Inguinaladiposetissue
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Conclusions
First all-in-one confocal and/or two-photon microscopes optimized for
in vivo imaging
Very small footprint with easy installation and integration into any lab
space
Equipped with a superb live animal maintenance platform and
ultrafast scanner
Optimized to image a great variety of internal organs
Capable of real-time motion compensation
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Heating pad
Objective
Lens
Motorized XYZ
translational stage
Heating pad
sensor
Rectal probe: body
temp. monitoring
Cover glass
holder
Dynamic Immune Cell Imaging
In Vivo Blood Vessel Imaging
- Endothelial cell labeled in vivo by intravenous injection
of anti- CD31 antibody conjugated with far-red
fluorophore
LysM-GFP mouse
- endogenously expresses green fluorescence protein (GFP) in the neutrophil
and macrophage by genetically knocking eGFP gene into the lysozyme M
(LysM) locus
Intravital Imaging of ear skin
Neutrophil/Macrophage (LysM-GFP)
Vessel (CD31)
J. Cell Biology, 216(7):2201 (2017)
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Dynamic Immune Cell Imaging
KARS protein
- KARS protein labelled with far-red fluorophore
Alexa647 was intradermally injected by using
microinjector
3 hurs after KARS injection 6 hours after KARS injection
J. Cell Biology, 216(7):2201 (2017)
KARS protein
Neutrophil/Macrophage (LysM-GFP)
LysM-GFP mouse
- endogenously expresses green fluorescence protein (GFP) in the neutrophil
and macrophage by genetically knocking eGFP gene into the lysozyme M
(LysM) locus
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Real-time Lymphatics Imaging
Heating pad
Popliteal lymph
node Cover
glass
Warm water
circulator
Rectal probe:
body temp.
monitoring
Temperature
Sensor
Objective
Lens
Cover glass
holder
Motorized XYZ
translational stage
Tail vein
catheter
Intravital Imaging of popliteal lymph node
Parenchyma
HEV
Lumen
Intravital imaging of extravasation of T cells & B cells
in the high endothelial venule (HEV) of Lymph Node
• T cell & B cell obtained from actin-DsRed & actin-GFP mice
then adoptively transferred to wildtype C57BL/6 mouse
• FRC labeled by anti-ER-TR7 antibody conjugated with Alexa Fluor
647
• HEV Lumen labeled by IV injection of 2MD FITC-Dextran
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Longitudinal Transplanted Cell Imaging
Day 1 Day 3 Day 4
1 mm
Heating pad
Cover
glass
Cranium Stereotaxic
Instrument: Mouth
Adapter, Ear Bar
Objective
Lens
Motorized XYZ
translational stage
Coronal
suture
Central vein
Sagittal suture
Cranium
Transplanted cell
Vessel (CD31)
Longitudinal repetitive wide-area intravital imaging of cranial bone marrow
after bone marrow transplantation of c-kit+ BM cell (DsRed)
Intravital Imaging of cranial bone marrow
PLoS ONE, 12(11):e0187660 (2017)
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Longitudinal Transplanted Cell Imaging
H2B-GFP / β-actin-DsRed mouse
- expresses green fluorescence protein (GFP) in the nucleus and DsRed in cytoplasm
Longitudinal repetitive wide-area intravital imaging of cranial bone marrow
after bone marrow transplantation of c-kit+ BM cell (DsRed)
Day 1
Intravital Imaging of cranial bone marrow
Day 3 Day 4
1 mm
Transplanted cell
Vessel (CD31)
PLoS ONE, 12(11):e0187660 (2017)
68. Globally linking scientists with
precision tools for research
through expertise in science,
engineering and support
INFO@SCINTICA.COM
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Hinweis der Redaktion
IVIM Technology’s All-in-One intravital confocal/two-photon microscopy system (IVM-C/M/CM/MS) is extensively optimized and carefully engineered to provide superb performance in the intravital imaging of live animal models in vivo
Considerations for Optical Imaging:
Better resolution at the cellular level than traditional in vivo methods (ex: MRI, CT)
Other imaging techniques provide better information at the level of the organ (larger scale)
General rule of thumb (any form of imaging): maximum depth ~ 10-100 x spatial resolution
This slide shows the tissue penetration of the different colors in the spectrum ranging from UV to IR light, and shows that Hb absorbs light maximally in the blue-green-yellow wavelengths, while water absorbs maximally in IR wavelengths, which means the optimal imaging window for in vivo is for light in the orange/red wavelengths of the visible spectrum and NIR wavelengths, meaning between 600 and 1000 nm. This is important to know when selecting fluorophores in fluorescence imaging since fluorophores have to be excited by distinct wavelengths and will emit at a distinct wavelength as well.
Use of fluorophores makes fluorescence imaging
Specific
Sensitive
Dynamic processes
Multiplexing
Fluorescent proteins can be incorporated into model or introduced externally
Endogenous species = autofluorescence!
To excite your chosen fluorophore specifically, you need to use the right wavelength that has the right amount of enegry to bring the electron from ground state to excited state.
Calculates for you how much the excitation wavelength for one fluorophore potentially also excites a different fluorophore if they are too close to each other in the spectrum
So you have chosen your fluorophores that you know can be distinguished from one another, but how will you actually achieve separating and imaging them? That is where fluorescence microscopes come into play and they exist of specific components to make that happen: a dichroic mirror and filter sets.
2 specialized fluorescence microscopes most commonly used in intravital imaging are the confocal and the two-photon microscope. They distinguish themselves from basic fluorescence microscopes such as the one in the previous slide by focusing a laser beam into the sample and scanning there point by point rather than illuminating the whole sample at once, thus increasing spatial resolution drastically. In order to collect the emitted light from the illuminated scanned area, the confocal microscope makes use of a pinhole before the detector. This pinhole rejects all photons emitted from outside the focus, as well as those that come from the focus but are scattered on their way to the detector. This way, only unscattered photons coming from the focal plane are able to pass through the pinhole (e.g., photon #5) and contribute to the signal. This inefficiency demands a high laser power for imaging though, which could create unwanted photodamage (such as photobleaching and phototoxicity) and limits imaging depth to a max of 100 μm.
In contrast, a 2-photon microscope does not require a pinhole since all emitted photons contributing to the signal come only from the focal point of the excitation spot (e.g., photon #5), regardless of how much they scatter on their path to the detector. Greater tissue penetration up to 500 um is reached with 2-photon microscopy and fewer excitation events are required to achieve the same signal due to the improved collection efficiency, limiting potential photodamage.
Confocal: fluorescence from out of focus planes
Two-photon: fluorescence from focal spot only
To understand why the signal in two-photon microscopy comes only from the focal point of the excitation spot, we need to have a look at the principles of two-photon microscopy, which differ from single-photon. Single photon excitation requires the absorption of a high energy photon to excite an electron of a fluorophore to an excited state. When this electron relaxes to its ground state, it emits a photon of light of a different wavelength than the excitation photon. In two-photon microscopy, reaching the excited state of an electron is achieved by the simultaneous absorption of two photons. The likelihood for this simultaneous absorption is basically only reachable in the focal point of the laser beam, which is why there is no out of focus fluorescence from scattered photons, eliminating the need for a pinhole. Since 2 low energy photons with a long wavelength are used to create the energy needed to excite the fluorophore, the penetration depth will be higher.
IntraVital Microscopy (IVM) enables dynamic 3D imaging of various cellular-level dynamics such as cell trafficking, cell-cell interaction and cell-microenvironment interaction inside the living body in vivo, providing a new insight in the processes of human disease development
In situ
Spatial information
Real time
Longitudinal
Quantitative
Reduce animals
Endoscopy!
coverslip thickness of #1.5 is usually required
applications
stem cell biology
oncology
drug development
applications
immunology
infection
inflammation
Motion Analysis (Speed, Acceleration, Track length)
Cells (Volume, Vesicles per Cell, Distance to Membrane, Vesicles per Nucleus, Distance to Cell Center)
Spots (Number (count), Position (x, y, z), Distance between Spots, Distance to Surface object)
Surfaces (Area, Volume, Intensity, Elipcity, Sphericity)
Vessels (Area, Density, Number of branches, Number of terminal points, Length, Volume)
Neuro (Dendrites (length, branch angle, density), Filaments (branch points, terminal points), Spines (length, volume, diameter)
Imaris/Image J/Fiji/In house software
Lung
gaining more and more experience in microscopy, animal models, window chambers and applying this in various appications
Conventionally, users have to prepare the each required functions by themselves. It was very difficult and non-optimal solution with low performance. IVIM is the world’s first and only company providing new All-in-One system providing the best intravital imaging performance.
Conventional: technically challenging for non-expert users, not optimized for in vivo imaging, hard to standardize, limited reproducibility
Limitations:
Imaging depth
Motion artifacts
Anesthetics and temperature control
IVIM: IVIM Technology’s All-in-One intravital confocal/two-photon microscopy system) is extensively optimized and carefully engineered to provide superb performance in the intravital imaging of live animal models in vivo
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
CEO/CTO/Co-Founder Pilhan Kim
Education
2000, B.S. Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University
2005, M.S./ Ph.D. Electrical Engineering, Seoul National University
Research Experience
2005 – 2010, Research Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA
Fellow Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Boston, USA
Wellman Center for Photomedicine
Work Experience
2010 – pres., Associate Prof. KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology)
Graduate School of Medical Science & Engineering
2017 – pres., CEO/CTO IVIM Technology
All-in-one single box package enables easy installation, operation and maintenance. It has co-optimized hardware and software for superb intravital imaging performance with ultrafast imaging speed and no limitation in imaging various internal organs.
IVM: fully integrates key functionalities for in vivo imaging, consists of an animal stage that can accommodate a wide variety of imaging windows, user friendly design
sub-micrometer imaging resolution
Ultra high speed imaging
Up to 4 simultaneous color channels
Integrated motion artifact compensation
IVM-MS: fully integrated 920nm 2-photon laser
IVM-MS: fully integrated 920nm 2-photon laser
IVIM’s unique selling point 1
Graphics processing unit, a specialized processor originally designed to accelerate graphics rendering. GPUs can process many pieces of data simultaneously, making them useful for machine learning, video editing, and gaming applications.
LIver
Lung
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a rapidly increasing chronic liver disorder worldwide. effective treatment strategy for NAFLD has not yet been established, which has been hampered by the limited understanding of the pathophysiological drivers for NAFLD. IVM observation of hepatic microenvironments over extended periods of time
In this work, novel fluorescent lipid droplet labeling dye, Seoul-Fluor 44 (SF44) to visualize individual lipid droplets and anti-CD31 antibody conjugated with Alexa Fluor 647 to visualize microvasculature simultaneously. longitudinally visualized and quantitatively analyzed the gradual accumulation of hepatic LDs and their changes with the liver sinusoid simultaneously during the progression of hepatic steatosis in a cellular resolution up to 21 days in vivo.
Spatial distribution of hepatic lipid droplet in MCD diet-induced NASH mouse model.
Longitudinal intravital imaging of hepatic lipid droplet accumulation in MCD-diet induced NASH mouse model. (a) Representative maximum intensity projection (MIP) images of hepatic LD (yellow, SF44) and sinusoid (cyan, CD31) in the liver of mice fed normal diet or MCD diet. Scale bars, 20 µm.
LysM-GFP model which possess the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) inserted in the Lysozyme M (LysM) promoter region (expressed primarily by neutrophils), when used in conjunction with in vivo fluorescence imaging (FLI) provide a means of quantifying neutrophil emigration noninvasively and longitudinally into wounded skin.
lysyl-tRNA synthetase (KRS), was previously shown to be secreted from cancer cells to induce inflammatory responses
In this study, we present the results of our investigation into how KRS is secreted to extracellular space and whether any posttranslational modifications are involved in this process.
Time-lapse intravital microscopy showing the recruitment of macrophages/monocytes (green) to the injected naked KRS stained with Alexa Fluor 647 as described in the Intravital imaging section of Materials and methods.
This study suggests a novel functional connection between caspase-mediated signaling and a key enzyme for protein synthesis, KRS, which is also active in immune stimulation when secreted into the extracellular space.
Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) has been widely performed in patients with blood disorders and cancers. However, the cellular-level behaviors of the transplanted bone marrow cells over wide-areas of the host bone marrow after the BMT are not fully understood yet.
longitudinal wide-area cellular-level observation of the calvarial bone marrow after the BMT in vivo. Using a H2B-GFP/β-actin-DsRed double-transgenic mouse model as a donor, a subcellular-level nuclear-cytoplasmic visualization of the transplanted bone marrow cells was achieved, which enabled a direct in vivo dynamic monitoring of the distribution and proliferation of the transplanted bone marrow cells.
Proliferation events observed during the 5 hour time-lapse imaging (S1 and S2 Movies). (B, C) Representative time-lapse image sequences showing (B) proliferation (S3 and S4 Movies) or (C) migration of the transplanted BM cell (S5 Movie).
From day 1 to day 4 after the BMT, the transplanted BM cells greatly increased in number and distributed widely where they formed clusters which also increased over time