Expansion microscopy is a novel, fluorescence imaging technique, which allows three-dimensional nanoscale imaging of specimens on a conventional fluorescence microscope. This is achieved through an innovative sample treatment, which culminates in approximately 4.5-fold expansion of specimens in each dimension. This allows 70 nm lateral and 200 nm axial resolution. To further develop application of the technique, there has been considerable focus on improving the methodology by i) extending the efficacy of labelling, ii) enabling multi-colour labelling of different biomolecules simultaneously, iii) further improving resolving power through alterations to sample preparation and iv) by combination of expansion microscopy with other well-established super resolution techniques. This review will highlight some of these recent advances and suggest ways that the technique could be developed further in the future.

扩展显微镜是一种新颖的荧光成像技术，可以在常规荧光显微镜上对标本进行三维纳米成像。这是通过创新的样品处理来实现的，该处理最终使每个方向上的样品膨胀约4.5倍。这样可以实现70 nm的横向分辨率和200 nm的轴向分辨率。为了进一步开发该技术的应用，人们一直将重点放在改进方法上，包括：i）扩展标记的功效，ii）同时对不同生物分子进行多色标记，iii）通过改变样品制备方法进一步提高分离能力，以及iv）结合使用扩展显微镜和其他公认的超分辨率技术。