Figure 4
From: In vivo and ex vivo virtual biopsy of the liver with near-infrared, reflectance confocal microscopy
Ex vivo liver as seen with light microscopy (a, × 10) and with near-infrared, reflectance confocal microscopy of freshly sectioned, unprocessed tissue (b–d, × 60). With a 830 nm diode laser, the hepatic plates display a moderate refractivity and lay in close contact making their individualization difficult (b). Vascular lumina are seen as round a-refractile areas (b, arrowhead) with occasional hyper-refractile erythrocytes trapped within (b, arrows). With an experimental 1064 Nd:YAG laser, it is possible to demarcate and track hepatic plates (c and d, bordered by discontinued lines). The hepatocytes appear as polygonal cells with a highly refractile cytoplasm and a hyporefractile nucleus centered by a hyper-refractile nucleolus (c). The sinusoidal tree is readily visualized as a network of a-refractile channels (d, continued lines). Scale bar represents 100 μm.
