Noninvasive visualization of electrical conductivity in tissues at the micrometer scale

Despite its importance in regulating cellular or tissue function, electrical conductivity can only be visualized in tissue indirectly as voltage potentials using fluorescent techniques, or directly with radio waves. These either requires invasive procedures like genetic modification or suffers from limited resolution. Here, we introduce radio-frequency thermoacoustic mesoscopy (RThAM) for the noninvasive imaging of conductivity by exploiting the direct absorption of near-field ultrashort radio-frequency pulses to stimulate the emission of broadband ultrasound waves. Detection of ultrasound rather than radio waves enables micrometer-scale resolutions, over several millimeters of tissue depth. We confirm an imaging resolution of <30 μm in phantoms and demonstrate microscopic imaging of conductivity correlating to physical structures in 1- and 512-cell zebrafish embryos, as well as larvae. These results support RThAM as a promising method for high-resolution, label-free assessment of conductivity in tissues.