PubMed ID: 38495713
Author(s): Liu CJ, Smith JT, Wang Y, Ouellette JN, Rogers JD, Oliner JD, Szulczewski M, Wait E, Brown W, Wax A, Eliceiri KW, Rafter J. Assessing cell viability with dynamic optical coherence microscopy. Biomed Opt Express. 2024 Feb 5;15(3):1408-1417. doi: 10.1364/BOE.509835. PMID: 38495713; PMCID: PMC10942685.PMID 38495713
Journal: Biomedical Optics Express 15(3)
Assessing cell viability is important in many fields of research. Current optical methods to assess cell viability typically involve fluorescent dyes, which are often less reliable and have poor permeability in primary tissues. Dynamic optical coherence microscopy (dOCM) is an emerging tool that provides label-free contrast reflecting changes in cellular metabolism. In this work, we compare the live contrast obtained from dOCM to viability dyes, and for the first time to our knowledge, demonstrate that dOCM can distinguish live cells from dead cells in murine syngeneic tumors. We further demonstrate a strong correlation between dOCM live contrast and optical redox ratio by metabolic imaging in primary mouse liver tissue. The dOCM technique opens a new avenue to apply label-free imaging to assess the effects of immuno-oncology agents, targeted therapies, chemotherapy, and cell therapies using live tumor tissues.