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Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM or LSCM) is a technique for obtaining high-resolution optical images with depth selectivity. The key feature of confocal microscopy is its ability to acquire in-focus images from selected depths, a process known as optical sectioning. Images are acquired point-by-point and reconstructed with a computer, allowing three-dimensional reconstructions of topologically complex objects. For opaque specimens, this is useful for surface profiling, while for non-opaque specimens, interior structures can be imaged. For interior imaging, the quality of the image is greatly enhanced over simple microscopy because image information from multiple depths in the specimen is not superimposed. A conventional microscope "sees" as far into the specimen as the light can penetrate, while a confocal microscope only "sees" images one depth level at a time. In effect, the CLSM achieves a controlled and highly limited depth of focus. The principle of confocal microscopy was originally patented by Marvin Minsky in 1957, but it took another thirty years and the development of lasers for CLSM to become a standard technique toward the end of the 1980s.〔 In 1978, Thomas and Christoph Cremer designed a laser scanning process, which scans the three dimensional surface of an object point-by-point by means of a focused laser beam, and creates the over-all picture by electronic means similar to those used in scanning electron microscopes.〔Considerations on a laser-scanning-microscope with high resolution and depth of field: C. Cremer and T. Cremer in M1CROSCOPICA ACTA VOL. 81 NUMBER 1 September,pp. 31—44 (1978)〕 This CLSM design combined the laser scanning method with the 3D detection of biological objects labeled with fluorescent markers for the first time. During the next decade, confocal fluorescence microscopy was developed into a fully mature technology, in particular by groups working at the University of Amsterdam and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and their industry partners. ==Image formation== In a confocal laser scanning microscope, a laser beam passes through a light source aperture and then is focused by an objective lens into a small (ideally diffraction limited) focal volume within or on the surface of a specimen. In biological applications especially, the specimen may be fluorescent. Scattered and reflected laser light as well as any fluorescent light from the illuminated spot passes back through the objective lens. A beam splitter separates off some portion of the light into the detection apparatus, which in fluorescence confocal microscopy will also have a filter that selectively passes the fluorescent wavelengths while blocking the original excitation wavelength. After passing a ''pinhole'', the light intensity is detected by a photodetection device (usually a photomultiplier tube (PMT) or avalanche photodiode), transforming the light signal into an electrical one that is recorded by a computer. The detector aperture obstructs the light that is not coming from the focal point, as shown by the dotted gray line in the image. The out-of-focus light is suppressed: most of the returning light is blocked by the pinhole, which results in sharper images than those from conventional fluorescence microscopy techniques and permits one to obtain images of planes at various depths within the sample (sets of such images are also known as ''z stacks'').〔 The detected light originating from an illuminated volume element within the specimen represents one pixel in the resulting image. As the laser scans over the plane of interest, a whole image is obtained pixel-by-pixel and line-by-line, whereas the brightness of a resulting image pixel corresponds to the relative intensity of detected light. The beam is scanned across the sample in the horizontal plane by using one or more (servo controlled) oscillating mirrors. This scanning method usually has a low reaction latency and the scan speed can be varied. Slower scans provide a better signal-to-noise ratio, resulting in better contrast and higher resolution. Information can be collected from different focal planes by raising or lowering the microscope stage or objective lens. Successive slices make up a 'z-stack' which can either be processed by certain software to create a 3D image, or it is merged into a 2D stack (predominately the maximum pixel intensity is taken, other common methods include using the standard deviation or summing the pixels).〔 Confocal microscopy provides the capacity for direct, noninvasive, serial optical sectioning of intact, thick, living specimens with a minimum of sample preparation as well as a marginal improvement in lateral resolution.〔 Biological samples are often treated with fluorescent dyes to make selected objects visible. However, the actual dye concentration can be low to minimize the disturbance of biological systems: some instruments can track single fluorescent molecules. Also, transgenic techniques can create organisms that produce their own fluorescent chimeric molecules (such as a fusion of GFP, green fluorescent protein with the protein of interest). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Confocal laser scanning microscopy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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