All-optical in situ histology of brain tissue with femtosecond laser pulses.

This protocol describes the application of laser pulses to image and ablate neuronal tissue for the purpose of automated histology. The histology is accomplished in situ using serial two-photon imaging of labeled tissue and removal of the imaged tissue with amplified, femtosecond pulses. Together with the use of endogenous fluorescent indicators and/or deep penetration of antibody labels and organic dyes, this method may be used to automatically image, reconstruct, and vectorize structures of interest across millimeter to centimeter regions of brain with micrometer resolution.