Holographic tomography (HT) is a label-free, high-resolution and non-invasive method that retrieves 3D refractive index (RI) information about analysed biological specimens. The most common measurement scenario includes culturing and analysing cells directly in a Petri dish. However, it does not mimic the in vivo conditions unlike the microfluidic approach. Thus, in our work, we have focused on the development of a measurement configuration that is dedicated to analysis of cell dynamics in a lab-on-chip. It includes a fast HT system, a new ultra-thin microfluidic chip that allows for long term monitoring in controlled environment, a stitching algorithm that allows to combine single fields of view (FoV) into a synthetic field of view in three dimensions and the full volume RI analysis of internal cellular organelles during measurements. This setup provides the ability to track changes occurring in individual cell organelles as well as getting statistically valuable data. In experimental verification, A549-type and MeWo cells were cultured under microfluidic conditions in the chip and put under observation using HT.
|