Fluorescence-detected linear dichroism imaging in a re-scan confocal microscope equipped with differential polarization attachment

Confocal laser scanning microscopy is probably the most widely used and one of the most powerful techniques in basic biology, medicine and material sciences that is employed to elucidate the architecture of complex cellular structures and molecular macro-assemblies. It has recently been shown that the information content, signal-to-noise ratio and resolution of such microscopes (LSMs) can be improved significantly by adding different attachments or modifying their design, while retaining their user-friendly features and relatively moderate costs. Differential polarization (DP) attachments, using high-frequency modulation/demodulation circuits, have made LSMs capable of high-precision 2D and 3D mapping of the anisotropy of microscopic samples—without interfering with their ‘conventional’ fluorescence or transmission imaging (Steinbach et al. in Methods Appl Fluoresc 2:015005, 2014 ). The resolution and the quality of fluorescence imaging have been enhanced in the recently constructed Re-scan confocal microscopy (RCM) (De Luca et al. in Biomed Opt Express 4:2644–2656, 2013 ). In this work, we developed the RCM technique further, by adding a DP-attachment modulating the exciting laser beam via a liquid crystal (LC) retarder synchronized with the data acquisition system; by this means, and with the aid of a software, fluorescence-detected linear dichroism (FDLD), characteristic of the anisotropic molecular organization of the sample, could be recorded in parallel with the confocal fluorescence imaging. For demonstration, we show FDLD images of a plant cell wall ( Ginkgo biloba ) stained with Etzold’s staining solution.