Fast and long term lipid droplet tracking with CARS microscopy

Photobleaching of organic fluorophores commonly used in fluorescence microscopy puts a limit to the number of images which can be acquired. Label-free imaging techniques therefore offer advantages both for rapid image acquisition and for long-term observations. CARS microscopy is a label-free imaging technique offering molecule specific contrast. Here we demonstrate that CARS microscopy allows video-rate tracking of intracellular transport of lipid droplets, but also continuous long-term observation of cells over several hours.