Fluorescence imaging of flowing cells using a temporally coded excitation

Imaging fluorescence in moving cells is fundamentally challenging because the exposure time is constrained by motion-blur, which limits the available signal. We report a method to image fluorescently labeled leukemia cells in fluid flow that has an effective exposure time of up to 50 times the motion-blur limit. Flowing cells are illuminated with a pseudo-random excitation pulse sequence, resulting in a motion-blur that can be computationally removed to produce near diffraction-limited images. This method enables observation of cellular organelles and their behavior in a fluid environment that resembles the vasculature. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America