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Updated: May 3, 2026

Semi-automated Analysis of Mouse Skeletal Muscle Morphology and Fiber-type Composition
Published on: August 31, 2017
Label-free multimodal nonlinear optical microscopy reveals fundamental insights of skeletal muscle development
Qiqi Sun1, Yanfeng Li2, Sicong He3
1Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China ; These authors contributed equally to this work.
Abstract:
We developed a label-free nonlinear optical (NLO) microscope integrating the stimulated Raman scattering, multi-color two-photon excited fluorescence and second harmonic generation. The system produces multimodal images of protein content, mitochondria distribution and sarcomere structure of fresh muscle samples. With the advanced imaging technique, we studied the mal-development of skeletal muscle caused by sarcomeric gene deficiency. In addition, important development processes of normal muscle from neonatal to adult stage were also clearly revealed based on the changing sarcomere structure, mitochondria distribution and muscle fiber size. The results demonstrate that the newly developed multimodal NLO microscope is a powerful tool to assess the muscle integrity and function.
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