Coherence-controlled Holographic Microscopy Research Articles

Comparison of holotomographic microscopy and coherence-controlled holographic microscopy.

Quantitative phase imaging (QPI) is a powerful tool for label-free visualisation of living cells. Here, we compare two QPI microscopes - the Telight Q-Phase microscope and the Nanolive 3D Cell Explorer-fluo microscope. Both systems provide unbiased information about cell morphology, such as individual cell dry mass, perimeter and area. The Q-Phase microscope uses artefact-free, coherence-controlled holographic imaging technology to visualise cells in real time with minimal phototoxicity. The 3D Cell Explorer-fluo employs laser-based holotomography to reconstruct 3D images of living cells, visualising their internal structures and dynamics. Here, we analysed the strengths and limitations of both microscopes when examining two morphologically distinct cell lines - the cuboidal epithelial MDCK cells which form multicellular clusters and solitary growing Rat2 fibroblasts. We focus mainly on the ability of the devices to generate images suitable for single-cell segmentation by the built-in software, and we discuss the segmentation results and quantitative data generated from the segmented images. We show that both microscopes offer slightly different advantages, and the choice between them depends on the specific requirements and goals of the user.

Characterization of RACK1-depleted mammalian cells by a palette of microscopy approaches reveals defects in cell cycle progression and polarity establishment

The Receptor for Activated C Kinase 1 (RACK1) is an evolutionarily conserved scaffold protein involved in the regulation of numerous cellular processes. Here, we used CRISPR/Cas9 and siRNA to reduce the expression of RACK1 in Madin-Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) epithelial cells and Rat2 fibroblasts, respectively. RACK1-depleted cells were examined using coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopy. RACK1 depletion resulted in decreased cell proliferation, increased cell area and perimeter, and in the appearance of large binucleated cells suggesting a defect in the cell cycle progression. Our results show that the depletion of RACK1 has a pleiotropic effect on both epithelial and mesenchymal cell lines and support its essential role in mammalian cells.

Phase of white light and its compatibility to the optical path.

The phase of monochromatic light directly relates to the optical path difference (OPD), but finding this connection for spectrally broadband light is challenging. Due to a missing concept of the compatibility between the phase of randomly fluctuating fields and the OPD, demanding scanning is the only proven way for a highly accurate OPD measurement in white light. Here, we use the self-coherence function (SCF) of the spatially incoherent light to reveal the connection between the white-light phase and the OPD. Our method uses an associated field assigned to the SCF to mimic the intensity oscillation of a correlation pattern. The associated field allows restoring a cumulative OPD integrated into the SCF across all spectral constituents. The method is essential for quantitative phase microscopy, in which the SCF is available even in white light, but its processing beyond the quasi-monochromatic approach is still lacking. Improper assessment of the white-light phase may result in a loss of measurement accuracy, as we demonstrate theoretically and experimentally. Deploying our method in coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, we measured the cumulative OPD in the broadband light with a strongly asymmetric spectrum (bandwidth of 150 nm), achieving accuracy better than 5 nm in the measuring depth range of 2 µm.

Quantitative Phase Imaging of Spreading Fibroblasts Identifies the Role of Focal Adhesion Kinase in the Stabilization of the Cell Rear.

Cells attaching to the extracellular matrix spontaneously acquire front–rear polarity. This self-organization process comprises spatial activation of polarity signaling networks and the establishment of a protruding cell front and a non-protruding cell rear. Cell polarization also involves the reorganization of cell mass, notably the nucleus that is positioned at the cell rear. It remains unclear, however, how these processes are regulated. Here, using coherence-controlled holographic microscopy (CCHM) for non-invasive live-cell quantitative phase imaging (QPI), we examined the role of the focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and its interacting partner Rack1 in dry mass distribution in spreading Rat2 fibroblasts. We found that FAK-depleted cells adopt an elongated, bipolar phenotype with a high central body mass that gradually decreases toward the ends of the elongated processes. Further characterization of spreading cells showed that FAK-depleted cells are incapable of forming a stable rear; rather, they form two distally positioned protruding regions. Continuous protrusions at opposite sides results in an elongated cell shape. In contrast, Rack1-depleted cells are round and large with the cell mass sharply dropping from the nuclear area towards the basal side. We propose that FAK and Rack1 act differently yet coordinately to establish front–rear polarity in spreading cells.

Cisplatin enhances cell stiffness and decreases invasiveness rate in prostate cancer cells by actin accumulation

We focused on the biomechanical and morphological characteristics of prostate cancer cells and their changes resulting from the effect of docetaxel, cisplatin, and long-term zinc supplementation. Cell population surviving the treatment was characterized as follows: cell stiffness was assessed by atomic force microscopy, cell motility and invasion capacity were determined by colony forming assay, wound healing assay, coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, and real-time cell analysis. Cells of metastatic origin exhibited lower height than cells derived from the primary tumour. Cell dry mass and CAV1 gene expression followed similar trends as cell stiffness. Docetaxel- and cisplatin-surviving cells had higher stiffness, and decreased motility and invasive potential as compared to non-treated cells. This effect was not observed in zinc(II)-treated cells. We presume that cell stiffness changes may represent an important overlooked effect of cisplatin-based anti-cancer drugs. Atomic force microscopy and confocal microscopy data images used in our study are available for download in the Zenodo repository (https://zenodo.org/, Digital Object Identifiers:10.5281/zenodo.1494935).

Distinctive behaviour of live biopsy-derived carcinoma cells unveiled using coherence-controlled holographic microscopy.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma is one of the most aggressive tumours and is typically diagnosed too late. Late diagnosis requires an urgent decision on an effective therapy. An individualized test of chemosensitivity should quickly indicate the suitability of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. No ex vivo chemosensitivity assessment developed thus far has become a part of general clinical practice. Therefore, we attempted to explore the new technique of coherence-controlled holographic microscopy to investigate the motility and growth of live cells from a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma biopsy. We expected to reveal behavioural patterns characteristic for malignant cells that can be used to imrove future predictive evaluation of chemotherapy. We managed to cultivate primary SACR2 carcinoma cells from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma biopsy verified through histopathology. The cells grew as a cohesive sheet of suspected carcinoma origin, and western blots showed positivity for the tumour marker p63 confirming cancerous origin. Unlike the roundish colonies of the established FaDu carcinoma cell line, the SACR2 cells formed irregularly shaped colonies, eliciting the impression of the collective invasion of carcinoma cells. Time-lapse recordings of the cohesive sheet activity revealed the rapid migration and high plasticity of these epithelial-like cells. Individual cells frequently abandoned the swiftly migrating crowd by moving aside and crawling faster. The increasing mass of fast migrating epithelial-like cells before and after mitosis confirmed the continuation of the cell cycle. In immunofluorescence, analogously shaped cells expressed the p63 tumour marker, considered proof of their origin from a carcinoma. These behavioural traits indicate the feasible identification of carcinoma cells in culture according to the proposed concept of the carcinoma cell dynamic phenotype. If further developed, this approach could later serve in a new functional online analysis of reactions of carcinoma cells to therapy. Such efforts conform to current trends in precision medicine.

Automated classification of cell morphology by coherence-controlled holographic microscopy.

In the last few years, classification of cells by machine learning has become frequently used in biology. However, most of the approaches are based on morphometric (MO) features, which are not quantitative in terms of cell mass. This may result in poor classification accuracy. Here, we study the potential contribution of coherence-controlled holographic microscopy enabling quantitative phase imaging for the classification of cell morphologies. We compare our approach with the commonly used method based on MO features. We tested both classification approaches in an experiment with nutritionally deprived cancer tissue cells, while employing several supervised machine learning algorithms. Most of the classifiers provided higher performance when quantitative phase features were employed. Based on the results, it can be concluded that the quantitative phase features played an important role in improving the performance of the classification. The methodology could be valuable help in refining the monitoring of live cells in an automated fashion. We believe that coherence-controlled holographic microscopy, as a tool for quantitative phase imaging, offers all preconditions for the accurate automated analysis of live cell behavior while enabling noninvasive label-free imaging with sufficient contrast and high-spatiotemporal phase sensitivity.

Quantitative 3D Phase Imaging of Plasmonic Metasurfaces

Coherence-controlled holographic microscopy (CCHM) is a real-time, wide-field, and quantitative light-microscopy technique enabling 3D imaging of electromagnetic fields, providing complete information about both their intensity and phase. These attributes make CCHM a promising candidate for performance assessment of phase-altering metasurfaces, a new class of artificial materials that allow to manipulate the wavefront of passing light and thus provide unprecedented functionalities in optics and nanophotonics. In this paper, we report on our investigation of phase imaging of plasmonic metasurfaces using holographic microscopy. We demonstrate its ability to obtain phase information from the whole field of view in a single measurement on a prototypical sample consisting of silver nanodisc arrays. The experimental data were validated using FDTD simulations and a theoretical model that relates the obtained phase image to the optical response of metasurface building blocks. Finally, in order to reveal the full ...

Coherence-controlled holographic microscopy enabled recognition of necrosis as the mechanism of cancer cells death after exposure to cytopathic turbid emulsion.

Coherence-controlled holographic microscopy (CCHM) in low-coherence mode possesses a pronounced coherence gate effect. This offers an option to investigate the details of cellular events leading to cell death caused by cytopathic turbid emulsions. CCHM capacity was first assessed in model situations that showed clear images obtained with low coherence of illumination but not with high coherence of illumination. Then, the form of death of human cancer cells induced by treatment with biologically active phospholipids (BAPs) preparation was investigated. The observed overall retraction of cell colony was apparently caused by the release of cell-to-substratum contacts. This was followed by the accumulation of granules decorating the nuclear membrane. Then, the occurrence of nuclear membrane indentations signaled the start of damage to the integrity of the cell nucleus. In the final stage, cells shrunk and disintegrated. This indicated that BAPs cause cell death by necrosis and not apoptosis. An intriguing option of checking the fate of cancer cells caused by the anticipated cooperative effect after adding another tested substance sodium dichloroacetate to turbid emulsion is discussed on grounds of pilot experiments. Such observations should reveal the impact and mechanism of action of the interacting drugs on cell behavior and fate that would otherwise remain hidden in turbid milieu.