Visualization of the normal rat pancreas using nonlinear optical microscopy and conventional histology.

<p>(A) The anatomical organization of the normal rat pancreas is composed of exocrine acini and endocrine pancreatic islets. RBC: red blood cell. (B) The nonlinear optical image of the normal rat pancreas at an imaging depth of 6 µm. The red color-coded structure is collagen, and the green color for fluorescent component. Scale bar is 30 µm. (C) The nonlinear optical image of the normal rat pancreas at an imaging depth of 23 µm. The asterisks, arrowheads and arrows indicate the nuclei, acinar cells, the collagen fibers, respectively. (D) The nonlinear optical image of the normal rat pancreas at an imaging depth of 27 µm. The dotted circle indicates the pattern of pancreatic acini. (E) The pancreatic acini can be observed in the hematoxylin and eosin image. (F) The Masson's trichrome image show small amount of collagen fibers are distributed around the acini of normal rat pancreatic samples.