Serotonin: Multiphoton imaging and relevant spectral data

Abstract

Coupling three-photon microscopy with automated stage movement can now produce a live high resolution map of the neurotransmitter serotonin in a single cross section of the whole rat brain. Accurate quantification of these serotonin images demands appropriate spectral filtering. This requires one to consider that the spectral characteristics of serotonin show a remarkable variation as it non-covalently associates with different molecules, as we discuss here. Also it is known that serotonin emission changes when it forms a covalent adduct with para-formaldehyde. This provides a potential route for producing a whole brain serotonin map using multiphoton microscopy in a fixed rat brain. Here we take the initial step showing that multiphoton microscopy of this adduct can quantitatively image chemically induced changes in serotonin distribution.