Researchers Use Full-Field Optical Coherence Microscopy to Identify Live Cancer Cells

Scientists from the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology, Korea announced that they utilized very high-resolution full-field optical coherence microscopy (FF-OCM) to detect live cancer cells.

The researchers utilized FF-OCM to analyze the refractive index (RI) distribution of one unmodified cell without additional cell treatment. This analysis enabled the RI contrast image to serve as an efficient biophysical indicator to identify malignant cells.

While measuring the RI map, an adherent cell’s physical thickness distribution was analyzed from 0.6 µm en-face (XY) cell tomograms. Consequently, the phase-gain image of the cell was obtained from the en-face image’s bottom surface. Then, the RI map was extracted by decoupling the thickness of the cell from the phase shifts. The system’s phase sensitivity was validated to be approximately 124 mrad.

RI maps of various living cancer cells were experimentally obtained with an RI accuracy of 0.001. The measurements indicated that the cancer cells had a bigger RI than the normal cells. The researchers expect the FF-OCM procedure to have enormous potential for early diagnosis of cancer cells.