Multicolor in vivo brain imaging with a microscope-coupled fiber-bundle microprobe

A fiber-bundle microprobe coupled to a confocal optical microscope is shown to enable multicolor in vivo fluorescence brain imaging. A bundle of several thousands of 2.4-μm-diameter optical fibers is employed to deliver multiwavelength laser excitation radiation and to transmit multicolor images from hippocampus tissues in living transgenic mice by picking up a multiplex fluorescent response from green fluorescent protein, nucleic acid counterstains, and neuron tracers.