Quantitative phase deformability cytometry for noninvasive high‐throughput characterization of cells

Abstract

Abstract Currently available deformability cytometry, combining microfluidics with the bright‐field high‐speed imaging system, has allowed label‐free mechanical characterizations of cells at a rate of hundreds of cells per second. However, the poor contrast between the signal and background under bright‐field imaging, especially for abnormal cells or cells treated with drugs, may produce artifacts during the recognition of cellular contours and subsequently bias the analysis of cellular deformability. In this study, a quantitative phase deformability cytometry (QPDC), constructed from a quantitative phase imaging system, is demonstrated with an improved signal‐to‐noise ratio of the acquired images and mitigated image artifacts, allowing a truthful illustration of cellular contours, especially for cells subjected to actin depolymerization. We have also demonstrated that the phase value extracted from captured images may provide an additional biophysical characteristic of cells. The presented QPDC platform is therefore expected to complement the existing deformability cytometry and expand the capacity of label‐free characterization of cells for biological and clinical applications.

Keywords

• cell mechanics
• deformability cytometry
• microfluidics
• quantitative phase imaging
• single cell analysis