Panoramic quantitative phase imaging of adherent live cells in a microfluidic environment

  • Biomed Opt Express. 2023 Sep 13;14(10):5182-5198. doi: 10.1364/BOE.498602.
Ying Ma  1  2  3 ,  Taiqiang Dai  4 ,  Yunze Lei  1  2  3 ,  Linlin Zhang  4 ,  Lin Ma  1  2  3 ,  Min Liu  1  2  3 ,  Sha An  1  2  3 ,  Juanjuan Zheng  1  2  3 ,  Kequn Zhuo  1  2  3 ,  Liang Kong  4  5 ,  Peng Gao  1  2  3  6
Affiliations
  • 1. School of Physics, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China.
  • 2. Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Perception of Complex Environment, Ministry of Education, China.
  • 3. Engineering Research Center of Functional Nanomaterials, Universities of Shaanxi Province, China.
  • 4. State Key Laboratory of Military Stomatology &National Clinical Research Center for Oral Diseases & Shaanxi Engineering Research Center for Dental Materials and Advanced Manufacture, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710000, China.
  • 5. [email protected].
  • 6. [email protected].
PMID: 37854568 DOI: 10.1364/BOE.498602
Abstract

Understanding how cells respond to external stimuli is crucial. However, there are a lack of inspection systems capable of simultaneously stimulating and imaging cells, especially in their natural states. This study presents a novel microfluidic stimulation and observation system equipped with flat-fielding quantitative phase contrast microscopy (FF-QPCM). This system allowed us to track the behavior of organelles in live cells experiencing controlled microfluidic stimulation. Using this innovative imaging platform, we successfully quantified the cellular response to shear stress including directional cellular shrinkage and mitochondrial distribution change in a label-free manner. Additionally, we detected and characterized the cellular response, particularly mitochondrial behavior, under varying fluidic conditions such as temperature and drug induction time. The proposed imaging platform is highly suitable for various microfluidic applications at the organelle level. We advocate that this platform will significantly facilitate life science research in microfluidic environments.

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