Automated cell size profiling using lens-free shadow imaging technique

Abstract

Cell size profiling is an important task in all modern biological laboratories. The size of cells has significant influence on synaptic transmission of cells, responses to environmental constrains and food textures [1-3]. A number of expensive and precise techniques are available for accurate cell size profiling. These highly precise standard methods, such as flow-cytometry and Coulter counter, are expensive and require various reagents. The rapid growing biological researches encourage an inexpensive, reagent-free, and compact device for cell size profiling. In this paper we demonstrate an automated cell sizing method based on the diffraction pattern analysis of the lens-free shadow imaging platform. The technique is able to automatically measure the sizes of more than several hundreds of cells in the field of view(FOV) of 23.52mm2 [4-6]. Due to this large FOV, this system can handle the cells more than 25 folds under the conventional 100X optical microscope. The system efficiently evaluates the cell sizes of red blood cells, MCF-7, HepG2 and HeLa cells. All these results of our system were compared with the standard readings of the respective samples from the optical microscope. The comparisons show a linear relationship between the two modalities. The correlation indexes for red blood cell, MCF-7, Hep G2 and Hela are 0.931, 0.802, 0.795 and 0.746 respectively.ive and precise techniques are available for accurate cell size profiling. These highly precise standard methods, such as flow-cytometry and Coulter counter, are expensive and require various reagents. The rapid growing biological researches encourage an inexpensive, reagent-free, and compact device for cell size profiling. In this paper we demonstrate an automated cell sizing method based on the diffraction pattern analysis of the lens-free shadow imaging platform. The technique is able to automatically measure the sizes of more than several hundreds of cells in the field of view(FOV) of 23.52mm2 [4-6]. Due to this large FOV, this system can handle the cells more than 25 folds under the conventional 100X optical microscope. The system efficiently evaluates the cell sizes of red blood cells, MCF-7, HepG2 and HeLa cells. All these results of our system were compared with the standard readings of the respective samples from the optical microscope. The comparisons show a linear relationship between the two modalities. The correlation indexes for red blood cell, MCF-7, Hep G2 and Hela are 0.931, 0.802, 0.795 and 0.746 respectively.