Application of thermal lens response to monitor health status of red blood cells: A quantitative study of the cell death process by extracting thermal diffusivity and size

Abstract

We explore monitoring the death process of individual red blood cells (RBC) quantitatively by using thermal lens (TL) response. TL response is a noninvasive excitation/probe technique that reflects photothermal parameters (e.g., absorption, thermal diffusivity, size, etc.). Since these parameters of cells change significantly during certain biological processes, real-time TL response was performed to monitor RBC death process when incubated with ionomycin. Theoretical model developed was applied to curve-fit the TL response for extracting thermal diffusivity and size of cells. Thermal diffusivity of dying RBC is found increased by 1.7 times in comparison with healthy cell.

Behavior of the thermal diffusivity of native and oxidized human low-density lipoprotein solutions studied by the Z-scan technique

“…Mainly, it is used to characterize the nonlinear response of inorganic materials, [10][11][12] however, nonlinear optics can play a significant role in the understanding of systems of biological interest. Recently, Vasudevan et al 13 reported an investigation about the death process of red blood cells by using the thermal lens technique. Lapotko et al 14 used this technique to study the diameter, the degree of spatial heterogeneity of light absorbance and laser-induced damage thresholds in various types of cells.…”

Nanomembrane‐Based, Thermal‐Transport Biosensor for Living Cells

“…The effect of cellular inner‐dynamics, due to different histological origins or different diseases, on the cellular thermal transport is still not properly established . The cellular cytoplasm, due to its both water and protein cytoskeleton (F‐actin) contents, is often modeled as a hydrogel .…”

“…Dynamic thermal properties and thermal diffusivity, the cell's ability to conduct thermal energy relative to its ability to store it, in particular, play an integral role in understanding how heat energy, whether generated through different biological processes or through artificially inserted heaters, is distributed within the cellular environment. A plethora of imaging (photoacoustic and photothermal imaging,) diagnostic (cell death monitoring) and therapeutic (photo/magnetothermal cancer targeting) techniques, require knowledge of dynamic heat flow within the cells. Other applications, ranging across plants physiological ecology (Xylem sap‐flow rates and leaf temperature control), to thermal dissipation in flexible semiconductors and flexible thermoelectric generation would benefit from a flexible microsized thermal‐transport sensor.…”

“…Since cellular response to overheating is diverse, ranging from improved diffusion rate across the cellular membrane to irreversible damage and protein denaturation, several techniques were developed to measure cellular thermal‐transport properties. 3‐Omega and thermal lensing techniques were employed to measure thermal conductivity and diffusivity (and effusivity as well), respectively. The cellular thermal diffusivity however is not studied as a thermal indicator of different types of cancers or different sub‐types of the same cancer.…”

Multiscale Thermal Property Measurements for Biomedical Applications

“…143 Therefore, TAM offers unique opportunities to address some unanswered questions about thermal transport around the NPs at small time (<1000 ps) and length scales (1−20 nm) 144 Several optical techniques such as laser flash method, TDTR and TAM have been discussed in the previous sections (Figure 5). Apart from these techniques, there are other optical techniques such as thermal lens microscopy 145 and photoluminescence 146 based methods used for measuring thermal conductivity and/or thermal diffusivity of biological cells. Though optical techniques are noninvasive and noncontact, the spatial resolution is limited by the diffraction limit of optics (∼300 nm).…”