Fast Three-Dimensional Single-Particle Tracking in Natural Brain Tissue

Observation of molecular dynamics is often biased by the optical very heterogeneous environment of cells and complex tissue. Here, we have designed an algorithm that facilitates molecular dynamic analyses within brain slices. We adjust fast astigmatism-based three-dimensional single-particle tracking techniques to depth-dependent optical aberrations induced by the refractive index mismatch so that they are applicable to complex samples. In contrast to existing techniques, our online calibration method determines the aberration directly from the acquired two-dimensional image stream by exploiting the inherent particle movement and the redundancy introduced by the astigmatism. The method improves the positioning by reducing the systematic errors introduced by the aberrations, and allows correct derivation of the cellular morphology and molecular diffusion parameters in three dimensions independently of the imaging depth. No additional experimental effort for the user is required. Our method will be useful for many imaging configurations, which allow imaging in deep cellular structures.