PHASE CORRELATION IMAGING OF UNLABELED CELL DYNAMICS

Lihong Ma1,2, Gannavarpu Rajshekhar1,† , RuWang1, Basanta Bhaduri1,‡ , Shamira Sridharan1, Mustafa Mir1, Arindam Chakraborty3, Rajashekar Iyer3, Supriya Prasanth3, Larry Millet3,4, Martha U.Gillette3,5 & Gabriel Popescu1
Scientific Reports, 6:32702 2016

We present phase correlation imaging (PCI) as a novel approach to study cell dynamics in a spatiallyresolved manner. PCI relies on quantitative phase imaging time-lapse data and, as such, functions in label-free mode, without the limitations associated with exogenous markers. The correlation time map outputted in PCI informs on the dynamics of the intracellular mass transport. Specifically, we show that PCI can extract quantitatively the diffusion coefficient map associated with live cells, as well as standard Brownian particles. Due to its high sensitivity to mass transport, PCI can be applied to studying the integrity of actin polymerization dynamics. Our results indicate that the cyto-D treatment blocking the actin polymerization has a dominant effect at the large spatial scales, in the region surrounding the cell. We found that PCI can distinguish between senescent and quiescent cells, which is extremely difficult without using specific markers currently. We anticipate that PCI will be used alongside established, fluorescence-based techniques to enable valuable new studies of cell function.