A hair-thin implant opens the entire depth of the mouse brain to revisiting the same structures at subcellular resolution
Abstract
Ultrathin multimode-fibre endoscopes provide minimally invasive access to subcellular structures throughout the depth of the mouse brain. Here we introduce a chronically implantable interface with a diameter of 144 μm, about the thickness of a human hair, that extends this capability to longitudinal imaging, enabling repeated access to the same fine structures over extended periods. The system supports weeks-long tracking of individual dendritic spines, allowing quantitative comparison of their dynamics and survival across dendritic compartments. We further demonstrate longitudinal intracellular calcium imaging during spontaneous and stimulus-evoked activity in the same cells across days, as well as repeated measurements of blood flow in the same vessels across multiple brain regions. This chronic endomicroscopic platform provides stable, minimally invasive optical access for longitudinal subcellular-resolution imaging of brain structure, activity and blood flow across depth.
Related
- Imaging-based spatial isoform transcriptomics resolves transcript diversity at cellular and subcellular resolution
- Adaptation of Iterative Ultrastructure Expansion Microscopy (iU-ExM) enables high-resolution imaging of the cytoskeleton and subcellular architecture of Trypanosoma cruzi
- Realism and resolution: How AI-predicted protein structures differ from experimental structures
- Analysis of Phycodnaviridae Tetrapyrrole Enzymes: Subcellular Localization and Functional Divergence from Host Homologs
- A ratiometric ER calcium sensor for quantitative comparisons across cell types and subcellular regions
BibTeX
@misc{stiburek2026hairthin,
title = {{A hair-thin implant opens the entire depth of the mouse brain to revisiting the same structures at subcellular resolution}},
author = {Miroslav Stibůrek and Tomáš Pikálek and Petra Ondráčková and Kristina Herzánová and Adrian Lorenz and André Gomes and Julia Henschke and Endre Levente Marosi and Bhargavi Murthy and Petra Kolbábková and Hongbo Jia and Sanja Bauer Mikulovic and Janelle Pakan and Alessio Attardo and Hana Uhlířová and Tomáš Čižmár},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.09481},
eprint = {2611.09481},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.09481},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A hair-thin implant opens the entire depth of the mouse brain to revisiting the same structures at subcellular resolution
AU - Miroslav Stibůrek
AU - Tomáš Pikálek
AU - Petra Ondráčková
AU - Kristina Herzánová
AU - Adrian Lorenz
AU - André Gomes
AU - Julia Henschke
AU - Endre Levente Marosi
AU - Bhargavi Murthy
AU - Petra Kolbábková
AU - Hongbo Jia
AU - Sanja Bauer Mikulovic
AU - Janelle Pakan
AU - Alessio Attardo
AU - Hana Uhlířová
AU - Tomáš Čižmár
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/06
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.09481
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.09481
AB - Ultrathin multimode-fibre endoscopes provide minimally invasive access to subcellular structures throughout the depth of the mouse brain. Here we introduce a chronically implantable interface with a diameter of 144 μm, about the thickness of a human hair, that extends this capability to longitudinal imaging, enabling repeated access to the same fine structures over extended periods. The system supports weeks-long tracking of individual dendritic spines, allowing quantitative comparison of their dynamics and survival across dendritic compartments. We further demonstrate longitudinal intracellular calcium imaging during spontaneous and stimulus-evoked activity in the same cells across days, as well as repeated measurements of blood flow in the same vessels across multiple brain regions. This chronic endomicroscopic platform provides stable, minimally invasive optical access for longitudinal subcellular-resolution imaging of brain structure, activity and blood flow across depth.
ER -