OCT imaging detection of brain blood vessels in mouse, based on semiconducting polymer nanoparticles

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a valuable technology that has been used to obtain microstructure images of tissue, and has several advantages, though its applications are limited in high-scattering tissues. Therefore, semiconducting polymer nanoparticles (SPNs) that possess strong absorption characteristics are applied to decrease light scattering in tissues and used as exogenous contrast agents for enhancing the contrast of OCT imaging detection. In this paper, we prepared two kinds of SPNs, termed PIDT-TBZ SPNs and PBDT-TBZ SPNs, as the contrast agents for OCT detection to enhance the signal. Firstly, we proved that they were good contrast agents for OCT imaging in agar-TiO₂. After that, the contrast effects of these two SPNs were quantitatively analyzed, and then cerebral blood vessels were monitored by a home-made SD-OCT system. Finally, we created OCT images in vitro and in vivo with these two probes and performed quantitative analysis using the images. The results indicated that these SPNs created a clear contrast enhancement of small vessels in the OCT imaging process, which provides a basis for the application of SPNs as contrast agents for bioimaging studies.