Combination of multiphoton and reflective confocal imaging of cornea.

We combine reflective confocal microscopy with multiphoton microscopy to form a minimally invasive technique to observe the cornea. The two imaging modalities allow detection of complementary information from the cornea. The autofluorescence signal shows the cytoplasm of epithelial cells, and the second harmonic generation signal is used to detect collagen, found mostly in the stroma of the cornea. The reflective confocal imaging allows detection of epithelial cells and keratocytes in the stroma. The system is first tested on bovine cornea. Assessment of the result on the bovine eye will be used to evaluate the potential of the system as a technique for in vivo clinical application. Copyright (c) 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.