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Implantation failure is a major problem in human assisted reproduction, which persists regardless the optimization of endometrial receptivity and selection of genetically and morphologically healthy embryos. Since embryo-endometrium interaction depends on cell junctional, cell adhesion and cell-substratum adhesion molecules, the present study inquired whether in vitro growing murine embryos display similar to the in vivo growing embryos patterns of adhesion molecules. To this extend aVb3 expression and distribution in zygotes and 2-cell stage embryos were studied. The results demonstrated that only the in vivo growing embryos displayed specifically polarized aVb3 distribution, indicating their potential successful interaction with endometrium. Based on previous studies showing that L-carnitine (L-Cn) could affect embryonic development, it was demonstrated that the addition of L-Cn to the culture medium, could lead the in vitro growing embryos to acquire aVb3 expression and distribution similar to the in vivo growing embryos. Visualization of the effect of L-Cn using third harmonic generation imaging showed decreased lipid droplet levels in 2-cell-stage embryos, observation that correlates with an active energetic state of the growing embryos. Thus, the application of L-Cn to the culture medium could assist pre-implantation-state embryos to acquire aVb3 expression and distribution similar to the in vivo developing conditions.

We introduce a novel diagnostic approach for the uncovering of hidden content in layered documents, based on a photoacoustic imaging setup with optimized acoustic detection parameters. By exploiting the laser-induced ultrasound following the intense absorption of pulsed optical radiation by printed ink, this traditional biomedical imaging method is proven capable of revealing text characters buried under several layers of stacked paper sheets at high spatial resolution and excellent contrast levels. Such a remarkable performance benefits from the effective combination of strong light scattering by paper fibrils and the virtually unobstructed propagation of the generated ultrasonic waves through multiple layers, enabling thus the accurate recording of text, even in double-sided prints, with minimum shadowing artifacts. The imaging effectiveness, the implementation simplicity, the robustness and the relatively low cost features offered by the proposed photoacoustic modality, are anticipated to contribute in its wide adoption by the preservation of cultural heritage community, as a powerful diagnostic tool for the in-depth investigation of complex multi-layered objects.

Pigments in vegetative tissues have been a subject of intense research during the previous decades, since they play an active role in several molecular mechanisms regarding plants' physiology and function. Towards this direction, the imaging modality that has been extensively employed and represents the state of the art for mapping pigments' distribution is confocal microscopy. Despite the advantage of a high spatial resolution however, confocal microscopy provides a rather limited imaging depth and requires necessarily strong fluorescence properties from the specimen under observation. To overcome such limitations, we propose a hybrid, photoacoustic and optical imaging methodology for the delineation of various vegetative pigments, such as chlorophylls, anthocyanins and betalains in different plant species. The superior sensitivity and the high contrast complementarity of the hybrid technique, render it a powerful alternative to the conventional fluorescence imaging modalities, significantly expanding the current state of the art.

Pigments in vegetative tissues have been a subject of intense research during the previous decades, since they play an active role in several molecular mechanisms regarding plants' physiology and function. Towards this direction, the imaging modality that has been extensively employed and represents the state of the art for mapping pigments' distribution is confocal microscopy. Despite the advantage of a high spatial resolution however, confocal microscopy provides a rather limited imaging depth and requires necessarily strong fluorescence properties from the specimen under observation. To overcome such limitations, we propose a hybrid, photoacoustic and optical imaging methodology for the delineation of various vegetative pigments, such as chlorophylls, anthocyanins and betalains in different plant species. The superior sensitivity and the high contrast complementarity of the hybrid technique, render it a powerful alternative to the conventional fluorescence imaging modalities, significantly expanding the current state of the art.

We demonstrate photoacoustic microscopy as a metrology method for the optical characterization and quality control of contact lenses (CLs). Dual-wavelength excitation is applied to CLs tinted on both sides with two thin ink layers, each of them possessing distinctly different optical absorption properties. Thus, the method is capable of measuring the elevation maps of both CL surfaces during two subsequent imaging sessions and extracting the CL thickness, curvatures, and dioptric power. We show that such an easily implementable technique provides robust, high-precision, cost-effective three-dimensional imaging and characterization of both rigid and soft CLs, which renders it highly favorable for a broad range of applications.