One of the main problems of 3D imaging in optical microscopy is unisotropic optical resolution of acquired 3D data. For instance in confocal laser scanning microscopy, axial resolution is 2-3 times worse than the lateral one. A sophisticated solution of this problem is so-called micro axial tomography that provides a good means for microscopic image acquisition of cells or sub-cellular components like cell nuclei with an improved resolution achieved by object tilting and acquisition of a series of mutually tilted 3D image data. For instance, a 90-degree rotation of the object relative to the observation direction is theoretically sufficient for object registration with isotropic resolution in all spatial directions. Since the very early developments of micro axial tomography a considerable drawback of this method was a complicated image acquisition and processing procedure that requires much operator time. In order to solve this problem advanced microscopy and automated computer image acquisition and analysis were brought together. A special software module has been developed that drives all hardware components required for automated axial tomography and performs multi-view 3D image acquisition and processing. First, a general image acquisition strategy is presented. Then the procedure for automation of axial tomography and the developed software module are described. Finally, an example of real biological data is presented.
