Abstract
.While the nucleus-to-cytoplasmic (N:C) ratio has traditionally been used for assessing cell malignancy, most N:C measurement techniques are time-consuming and performed on thin histological sections, which prohibit assessment of three-dimensional cell structure. A combined ultrahigh frequency ultrasound (US) and photoacoustic (PA) technique was used to assess the size and N:C ratio of cultured cancer cells in three dimensions (3D). The diameters of the cells and their stained nuclei were obtained by fitting the power spectrum of backscattered US pulses and emitted PA waves, respectively, to well-established theoretical models. For comparison, an imaging flow cytometer (IFC) was also used to determine the two-dimensional cell and nucleus sizes from large cell populations using brightfield and fluorescence images, respectively. An N:C ratio was calculated for each cell using the quotient of the measured nucleus diameter and the total cell diameter. The mean N:C ratios calculated using the sound-based approach were 0.68, 0.66, and 0.54 for MCF-7, PC-3, and MDA-MB-231 cells, respectively, and were in good agreement with the corresponding values of 0.68, 0.67, and 0.68 obtained using the IFC. The combined US and PA technique, which assesses cellular N:C ratio in 3D, has potential applications in the detection of circulating tumor cells in liquid biopsies.
Highlights
The development of new techniques and methods for cancer diagnosis is an active area of scientific and clinical research
We investigated two different breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231), as well as PC-3 prostate cancer cells
The above exclusion process ensured highly curated datasets consisting of 2164 MCF-7 cells, 4824 PC-3 cells, and 2981 MDA cells, which were used to determine cell and nucleus size distributions for each cell line using imaging flow cytometer (IFC)
Summary
The development of new techniques and methods for cancer diagnosis is an active area of scientific and clinical research. The most commonly used technique for cancer diagnosis is histological assessment of tissue samples excised from the potentially cancerous tissue via optical microscopy.[1] Albeit the gold standard, histological assessment of tissue samples via optical microscopy is a time-consuming and low-throughput process that lacks the ability to adequately assess three-dimensional (3-D) cell structure, a critical component of accurate diagnostics.[2] One of the most prevalent characteristics of cancerous cells is an enlarged nucleus due to the increased amounts of chromatin present within malignant cells. It has been well reported that interobserver variability exists between pathologists using optical microscopy images to calculate the N:C ratio.[4,5,6]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
