This work compares two tomographic imaging technologies, time-domain full-field optical coherence tomography (FFOCT) working in reflection and optical transmission tomography (OTT), using a new optical setup that combines both. We show that, due to forward-scattering properties, the axial sectioning and contrast in OTT can be optimized by tuning illumination. The influence of sample scattering and thickness are discussed. We illustrate the comparison of the two methods in static (morphology) and dynamic (metabolic contrast) regimes using cell cultures, tissues and entire organisms emphasizing the advantages of both approaches.
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