In vivo structured illumination ophthalmoscopy demonstration on the human retina using adaptive optics

Structured illumination microscopy (SIM) is one of the most versatile super-resolution techniques. Yet, its application to high-resolution live imaging has been mainly limited to fluorescent and stationary specimens. Here, we present advancements in SIM to jointly tackle all the challenges of imaging living samples, i.e., obtaining super-resolution over an undistorted wide-field while dealing with sample motion, multiple scattering, sample-induced optical aberrations, and low signal-to-noise ratio. By using adaptive optics to compensate for optical aberrations and a reconstruction algorithm tailored for moving and thick tissue, we successfully apply SIM to in vivo retinal imaging and demonstrate structured illumination ophthalmoscopy with optical sectioning and resolution improvement for in vivo imaging of the human retina.