Application of thermal lens response to monitor health status of red blood cells: A quantitative study of the cell death process by extracting thermal diffusivity and size

Abstract

We explore monitoring the death process of individual red blood cells (RBC) quantitatively by using thermal lens (TL) response. TL response is a noninvasive excitation/probe technique that reflects photothermal parameters (e.g., absorption, thermal diffusivity, size, etc.). Since these parameters of cells change significantly during certain biological processes, real-time TL response was performed to monitor RBC death process when incubated with ionomycin. Theoretical model developed was applied to curve-fit the TL response for extracting thermal diffusivity and size of cells. Thermal diffusivity of dying RBC is found increased by 1.7 times in comparison with healthy cell.