Determination of the Three-Dimensional Rate of Cancer Cell Rotation in an Optically-Induced Electrokinetics Chip Using an Optical Flow Algorithm

Abstract

Our group has reported that Melan-A cells and lymphocytes undergo self-rotation in a homogeneous AC electric field, and found that the rotation velocity of these cells is a key indicator to characterize their physical properties. However, the determination of the rotation properties of a cell by human eyes is both gruesome and time consuming, and not always accurate. In this paper, a method is presented to more accurately determine the 3D cell rotation velocity and axis from a 2D image sequence captured by a single camera. Using the optical flow method, we obtained the 2D motion field data from the image sequence and back-project it onto a 3D sphere model, and then the rotation axis and velocity of the cell were calculated. After testing the algorithm on animated image sequences, experiments were also performed on image sequences of real rotating cells. All of these results indicate that this method is accurate, practical, and useful. Furthermore, the method presented there can also be used to determine the 3D rotation velocity of other types of spherical objects that are commonly used in microfluidic applications, such as beads and microparticles.

Physical Cytometry: Detecting Mass-Related Properties of Single Cells

“…Schematic of the OEK system. ,, (A) Experimental process; (B) variation of buoyant mass (buoyant density multiplied by cell volume) with volume; and (C) variation in mass, density, and volume of L1210 cells with different living states. The red part represents dead cells, and the green part represents living cells.…”

Optoelectronic tweezers: a versatile toolbox for nano-/micro-manipulation

“…10(a) shows self-rotational speeds of four kinds of cells (MCF-7 cells, HEK-293 cells, L929 cells, and C2C12 cells) with respect to the applied AC frequencies at a kept bias voltage of 10 V. 180 Imaging-matching algorithms were developed to measure the self-rotational speeds of these cells. 183,189,190 As illustrated in Fig. 10(a), four kinds of cells showed different self-rotational spectra, which can be used for cell identification.…”

“…191 Therefore, OET-induced self-rotational behaviors of RBCs can be used to monitor and evaluate the qualities of banked blood. Although self-rotational behaviors were widely observed for many different cell species in OET, [180][181][182][183]190,191 not all cells exhibit self-rotational behavior. For example, it was demonstrated that non-pigmented cells (e.g., A549 alveolar epithelial cells and HaCaT keratinocyte cells) rarely rotate under OET manipulation, very different from pigmented cells (e.g.…”

A Review on Microscopic Visual Servoing for Micromanipulation Systems: Applications in Micromanufacturing, Biological Injection, and Nanosensor Assembly

“…Its ability to incorporate various pieces of microvision information in one integrated package also lays a solid foundation for the automation and intelligence of micromanipulation systems, which is instrumental to the achievement of safe, stable and accurate micro-object manipulation. This integrated system is called a microvision system [24,[34][35][36], as shown in Figure 3a. However, at present, there are still many problems to be solved in microvision systems.…”