Histological imaging of biological tissue microstructures with the Morpho butterfly wing (Conference Presentation)

The arrangement of fibrous tissue microstructure is an indicator of the progression of many fatal and ever-occurring diseases. Common techniques for visualizing this property include biochemical stains that provide subjective information or complex and costly optics that are capable of visualizing these fibers at high resolutions. Polarized light microscopy presents an avenue in which the inherent birefringence of the extracellular fibers can be leveraged to observe their formation in a non-invasive and low-cost manner. However, most biological fibers possess relatively weak birefringence. Here we leverage the optical anisotropy of the Morpho butterfly wing and introduce Morpho-Enhanced Polarized Light Microscopy (MorE-PoL), a stain-free approach to imaging histological samples. We quantitatively assessed the anisotropic behavior of these histological tissue sections interfaced with the Morpho butterfly wing. The promising diagnostic properties of this stain-free imaging platform introduces a new method of diagnostic imaging for rapid, precise, and low-cost tissue diagnostics.