infocus #70 June 2023 Prismatic contrast enhancement microscopy (PACEM)

Brightfield microscopy has been a viable observation technique for cytology and histological analysis employing stained cells and tissue sections mounted on a microscope slide.

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.252

Many live cells (including phytoplankton and zooplankton) are generally transparent, preventing their clear observation using traditional brightfield microscopy. In this respect, other imaging modalities (such as darkfield [1], phase contrast [2] and DIC [3] microscopies) were developed, allowing the user to gain an insight into unstained living tissue (and cells) for image/video acquisition and observation of dynamic processes occurring real-time in vivo. However, most of these techniques may require additional accessories or even a total revamp of the entire microscope setup, if the said microscope is unable to support these techniques. In this regard, this article proposes an innovative imaging technique (termed PACEM) developed to circumvent these issues, as described in the following sections.

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