Improved Liver\nIntravital Microscopic Imaging Using\na Film-Assisted Stabilization Method

Intravital microscopy (IVM) is a valuable method for\nbiomedical\ncharacterization of dynamic processes, which has been applied to many\nfields such as neuroscience, oncology, and immunology. During IVM,\nvibration suppression is a major challenge due to the inevitable respiration\nand heartbeat from live animals. In this study, taking liver IVM as\nan example, we have unraveled the vibration inhibition effect of liquid\nbridges by studying the friction characteristics of a moist surface\non the mouse liver. We confirmed the presence of liquid bridges on\nthe liver through fluorescence imaging, which can provide microscale\nand nondestructive liquid connections between adjacent surfaces. Liquid\nbridges were constructed to sufficiently stabilize the liver after\nabdominal dissection by covering it with a polymer film, taking advantage\nof the high adhesion properties of liquid bridges. We further prototyped\na microscope-integrated vibration-damping device with adjustable film\ntension to simplify the sample preparation procedure, which remarkably\ndecreased the liver vibration. In practical application scenarios,\nwe observed the process of liposome phagocytosis by liver Kupffer\ncells with significantly improved image and video quality. Collectively,\nour method not only provided a feasible solution to vibration suppression\nin the field of IVM, but also has the potential to be applied to vibration\ndamping of precision instruments or other fields that require nondestructive\n″soft″ vibration damping.