Improved fluorophore separation with IMS confocal microscopy.

Some of the most extensively used fluorophores for multicolour fluorescence labelling of tissue, such as Lucifer yellow, fluorescein, Cyanine-3.18 and rhodamine, all have the disadvantage of being difficult to separate spectrally due to their broad and overlapping emission spectra. With the intensity-modulated multiple-beam scanning (IMS) technique, cross-talk between labels can be reduced to a fraction of that seen using conventional excitation and detection technique. Thus, cross-talk to the 'red' channel decreased with about one order of magnitude for the 'green' fluorophores Lucifer yellow and FITC. For the tested 'red' fluorophores, the amount of cross-talk to the green channel was reduced by 60-90%.