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Stokes-consistent computational polarimetric reconstruction for label-free imaging of nanoplastic-associated perturbations
Summary
Scientists developed a new imaging technique that uses light patterns (rather than dyes or stains) to detect nanoplastics inside living organisms, in this case tiny aquatic animals called rotifers. The method improved on previous imaging by using smarter computer processing to filter out noise and reveal clearer, more reliable signals of where nanoplastics build up in the body, particularly in digestive tissues. This matters because it offers a cleaner, less invasive way to study how nanoplastics affect living tissue, an important step toward understanding what these particles might do inside our own bodies as microplastic exposure becomes an increasing health
Polarimetric microscopy offers a label-free readout to probe anisotropy, scattering, and microstructural organization in biological systems, yet quantitative polarization observables become unreliable in low-signal aqueous imaging. In particular, the degree and angle of linear polarization are nonlinear functions of Stokes parameters and are therefore sensitive to noise, undersampling, and channel-dependent distortions in division-of-focal-plane measurements. Here, we introduce a Stokes-consistent computational polarimetric reconstruction framework for recovering reliable linear polarization observables from low-fidelity aqueous measurements. The proposed Nano-PolarSRN (nano-polarimetric super-resolution network) reconstructs four polarization-resolved channels while constraining the solution in both the image and Stokes-derived domains, thereby preserving intensity structure, degree of linear polarization (DoLP), and angle of polarization (AoP). Compared with intensity-supervised reconstruction, the Stokes-consistent framework improves structural fidelity and suppresses physically inconsistent DoLP and AoP artifacts. Applied to live marine rotifers exposed to polystyrene nanoplastics, the method reveals size-dependent polarization perturbations in digestive-vesicle-rich regions. Confocal fluorescence imaging independently confirms nanoplastic uptake, supporting the association between these label-free polarimetric signatures and nanoplastic uptake. This work establishes Stokes-consistent reconstruction as a computational optical strategy for quantitative label-free analysis of nanoplastic-associated perturbations in living aquatic organisms.