Table 1.

Comparison of combinations of Expansion Microscopy with different SRM methods.

	Effective lateral resolutionb $d_{eff}$	Maximum Effective imaging depthc	Photodamage	Probe
x4 expansiona +Epifluorescence/Confocal	~70 nm	15 μm	Medium	Conventional fluorophores
x4 expansion + Light Sheet/Lattice Light Sheet	~70 nm	15 μm	Low	Conventional fluorophores
x4 expansion + SIM	25–40 nm	<4 μm	Medium	Conventional fluorophores
x4 expansion + Airyscan	30–40 nm	15 μm	Medium	Conventional fluorophores
x4 expansion + SOFI/SRRF	15–30 nm	<2 μm higher when using light sheet	Medium	Fluctuating fluorophores
x4 expansion + STED	~10 nm	15 μm	High	High-depletability fluorophores
x4 expansion + PALM/STORM/SMLM	5–10 nm	<2 μm higher when using light sheet	Medium	Photoactivatable fluorophores

^aThe x4 expansion refers to samples that have been expanded by a factor of 4.0. The effective resolution is calculated with a 4.0 length expansion factor (Equation (1)).

^bThe maximum effective lateral resolution is calculated as the maximum lateral resolution of the microscope divided by the length expansion factor of the gel sample.

^cThe maximum effective imaging depth is the maximum imaging depth of the microscope divided by the length expansion factor.