Three-dimensional refractive index tomograms and deformability of individual human red blood cells from cord blood of newborn infants and maternal blood

Abstract

Red blood cells (RBCs) from the cord blood of newborn infants have distinctive functions in fetal and infant development. To systematically investigate the biophysical characteristics of individual cord RBCs in newborn infants, a comparative study was performed on RBCs from the cord blood of newborn infants and from adult mothers or nonpregnant women using optical holographic microtomography. Optical measurements of the distributions of the three-dimensional refractive indices and the dynamic membrane fluctuations of individual RBCs were used to investigate the morphological, biochemical, and mechanical properties of cord, maternal, and adult RBCs at the individual cell level. The volume and surface area of the cord RBCs were significantly larger than those of the RBCs from nonpregnant women, and the cord RBCs had more flattened shapes than that of the RBCs in adults. In addition, the hemoglobin (Hb) content in the cord RBCs from newborns was significantly higher. The Hb concentration in the cord RBCs was higher than that in the nonpregnant women or maternal RBCs, but they were within the physiological range of adults. Interestingly, the amplitudes of the dynamic membrane fluctuations in cord RBCs were comparable to those in nonpregnant women and maternal RBCs, suggesting that the deformability of cord RBCs is similar to that of healthy RBCs in adults.

Refractive index tomograms and dynamic membrane fluctuations of red blood cells from patients with diabetes mellitus

“…Recently, it has been shown that QPI techniques can be used to precisely probe dynamic fluctuations in cell membranes 46 , and these have been utilised in diverse applications in infectious disease 17, 42 , sickle cell disease 47 , and haematology 19, 48 .…”

Three-dimensional label-free imaging and quantification of lipid droplets in live hepatocytes

“…Measured 2-D optical phase delay of individual cells corresponds to the dry mass of each cell202122, which is the mass of the aqueous components inside the cell including proteins and subcellular organelles, and the temporal fluctuation of the optical phase delay is implemented to study the membrane fluctuation of biological cells on a nanometre level232425. Moreover, the measurements of multiple complex optical fields with various incident angles reconstruct the 3-D refractive index (RI) distribution of biological samples, which corresponds to the intracellular protein concentration of individual cell262728293031323334353637. The 3-D RI distribution of biological samples can serve as an alternate solution for 3-D label-free imaging and quantification of LDs in live cells.…”

Label-free identification of non-activated lymphocytes using three-dimensional refractive index tomography and machine learning

“…Previously, ODT has been widely used to study various biological samples including red blood cells [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] however, we were unable to identify lymphocyte cell types due to their indistinguishable cellular morphology and biochemical characteristics.…”

“…Previously, ODT has been widely used to study various biological samples including red blood cells [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] , white blood cells (WBC) 23,24 , hepatocytes 25 , cancer cells 16,[26][27][28][29][30][31][32] , neurons 32,33 , bacteria 34,35 , phytoplankton 36 , and hair 37 . In our previous study, we reported that ODT enables the quantitative analysis of WBCs including lymphocytes and macrophages 23 .…”