Wearable optical coherence tomography angiography probe for monitoring mouse brain in vivo

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has become a promising tool for studying anatomical and functional dynamics of the cerebral cortex, offering advantages such as label-free imaging, high resolution, and non-invasive optical biopsy. However, observing the brains of non-anesthetized and freely moving mice has been a long-standing challenge for OCT. In this study, we designed a wearable OCT probe to observe the vascular morphology of the mouse brain and track short-term vascular changes after thrombosis. We utilized a microelectromechanical system (MEMS) scanning mirror for three-dimensional scanning. Compared to traditional OCT systems, this wearable imaging probe features miniaturization, low cost, portability, and stability, allowing for imaging of the mouse brain in a non-anesthetized and freely moving state. The entire probe weighs 8 g and achieves a lateral resolution of 5.5 μm, a longitudinal resolution of 12 μm, and an effective imaging area of 4 mm × 4 mm. We evaluated the performance of the probe through phantom experiments and imaging of the mouse brain's vascular network, and successfully monitored local vascular morphological changes in the mouse brain shortly after stroke under awake conditions. We believe that the wearable probe can be applied in various fields such as ophthalmology, dermatology, and dentistry, and due to its portability and non-invasiveness, the wearable OCT probe is expected to have wide clinical research applications.