We report a novel wearable optical resolution photoacoustic microscope

Optical resolutionphotoacoustic microscopy (ORPAM) is an emerging imaging technique, which hasbeen extensively used to study various brain activities and disorders of theanesthetized/restricted rodents with a special focus on the morphological andfunctional visualization of cerebral cortex. However, it is challenging todevelop a wearable photoacoustic microscope, which enables the investigation ofbrain activities/disorders on freely moving rodents. Here, we report a wearableand robust optical resolution photoacoustic microscope (W-ORPAM), whichutilizes a small, light, stable and fast optical scanner. This wearable imagingprobe features high spatiotemporal resolution, large field of view (FOV), andeasy assembly as well as adjustable optical focus during the in vivo experiment, which makes itaccessible to image cerebral cortex activities of freely moving rodents. Todemonstrate the advantages of this technique, we used W-ORPAM to monitor bothmorphological and functional variations of vasculature in cerebral cortexduring the induction of ischemia and reperfusion of a freely moving rat. (https://doi.org/10.1002/jbio.201900066)