Single-shot slightly-off-axis interferometry based Hilbert phase microscopy of red blood cells

Erythrocyte Membrane Coating Alleviate Immune Response and Promoted Adipogenesis in Adipose Matrix

Xenotransplantation of acellular adipose matrix (AAM) has come to prominence as an intriguing option for soft tissue reconstruction. However, the presence of immunogenic antigens within AAM can trigger unfavorable immune reactions, leading to inadequate in vivo regeneration outcomes. Therefore, the development of advanced technology capable of modulating immune responses is crucial for the therapeutic implementation of AAM xenografts. In this work, an innovative technique is created to bypass the immune system by covering the surface of both AAM and Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) peptide-modified AAM xenografts with autologous red blood cell (RBC) membrane. The RBC membrane coating remained persistent and exhibited no significant decline even after 21 days. Moreover, it effectively reduced the expression of antigen major histocompatibility complex class 1 (MHC1) on the AAM surface. Following xenogeneic transplantation, the RBC-coated xenografts demonstrated increased expression of the adipogenic factor PPAR-γ, Adipoq, Fabp4, Fasn, and Plin1 and higher numbers of adipocytes. In addition, they exhibited decreased expression of immunological factors, including IL-6, IL-2, IFN-γ, and TNF-α, and fewer inflammatory cells. These findings indicate that RBC membrane coating successfully suppressed immune responses and promoted increased adipogenesis in AAM xenografts. Therefore, AAM camouflage coating with RBC has a lot of potential as a biomaterial for soft tissue reconstruction in clinical settings.

Red blood cell membrane nanoparticles for tumor phototherapy

Non-invasive phototherapy includes photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT), and has garnered special interest in anti-tumor therapy. However, traditional photosensitizers or photothermal agents are faced with major challenges, including easy recognition by immune system, rapid clearance from blood circulation, and low accumulation in target sites. Combining the characteristics of natural cell membrane with the characteristics of photosensitizer or photothermal agent is an important technology to achieve the ideal therapeutic effect of cancer. Red cell membrane (RBMs) coated can disguise phototherapy agents as endogenous substances, thus constructing a new nano bionic therapeutic platform, resisting blood clearance and prolonging circulation time. At present, a variety of phototherapy agents based on Nano-RBMs have been isolated or designed. In this review, firstly, the basic principles of Nano-RBMs and phototherapy are expounded respectively. Then, the latest progress of Nano-RBMs for PDT, PTT and PDT/PTT applications in recent five years has been introduced respectively. Finally, the problems and challenges of Nano-RBMs in the field of phototherapy are put forward.

DeepOrientation: convolutional neural network for fringe pattern orientation map estimation

Fringe pattern based measurement techniques are the state-of-the-art in full-field optical metrology. They are crucial both in macroscale, e.g., fringe projection profilometry, and microscale, e.g., label-free quantitative phase microscopy. Accurate estimation of the local fringe orientation map can significantly facilitate the measurement process in various ways, e.g., fringe filtering (denoising), fringe pattern boundary padding, fringe skeletoning (contouring/following/tracking), local fringe spatial frequency (fringe period) estimation, and fringe pattern phase demodulation. Considering all of that, the accurate, robust, and preferably automatic estimation of local fringe orientation map is of high importance. In this paper we propose a novel numerical solution for local fringe orientation map estimation based on convolutional neural network and deep learning called DeepOrientation. Numerical simulations and experimental results corroborate the effectiveness of the proposed DeepOrientation comparing it with a representative of the classical approach to orientation estimation called combined plane fitting/gradient method. The example proving the effectiveness of DeepOrientation in fringe pattern analysis, which we present in this paper, is the application of DeepOrientation for guiding the phase demodulation process in Hilbert spiral transform. In particular, living HeLa cells quantitative phase imaging outcomes verify the method as an important asset in label-free microscopy.

Fringe analysis: single-shot or two-frames? Quantitative phase imaging answers

Conditions of the digital recording of the fringe pattern determine the phase reconstruction procedure, which in turn directly shapes the final accuracy and throughput of the full-field (non-scanning) optical measurement technique and defines the system capabilities. In this way, the fringe pattern analysis plays a crucial role in the ubiquitous optical measurements and thus is under constant development focused on high temporal/spatial resolution. It is especially valuable in the quantitative phase imaging technology, which emerged in the high-contrast label-free biomedical microscopy. In this paper, I apply recently blossomed two-frame phase-shifting techniques to the QPI and merge them with advanced adaptive interferogram pre-filtering algorithms. Next, I comprehensively test such frameworks against classical and adaptive single-shot methods applied for phase reconstruction in dynamic QPI enabling highest phase time-space-bandwidth product. The presented study systematically tackles important question: what is the gain, if any, in QPI realized by recording two phase-shifted interferograms? Counterintuitively, the results show that single-shot demodulation exhibited higher phase reconstruction accuracy than two-frame phase-shifting methods in low and medium interferogram signal-to-noise ratio regimes. Thus, the single-shot approach is promoted due to not only high temporal resolution but also larger phase-information throughput. Additionally, in the majority of scenarios, the best option is to shift the paradigm and employ two-frame pre-filtering rather than two-frame phase retrieval. Experimental fringe analysis in QPI of LSEC/RWPE cell lines successfully corroborated all novel numerical findings. Hence, the presented numerical-experimental research advances the important field of fringe analysis solutions for optical full-field measurement methods with widespread bio-engineering applications.

Online quantitative partial discharge monitor based on interferometry

Interferometry-based online partial discharge (PD) monitor presented in this paper can detect the occurrence of PD sensitively, evaluate the peak value of the discharge inception voltage with random waveform and the damage extent relatively cost effectively. The interferograms affected by the PD are collected online. By extracting the phase information of the interference fringes quantitatively, the peak value of the discharge inception voltage with random waveform can be retrieved real-time. Merits of the proposed method as an online quantitative PD monitor are validated via theoretical analysis as well as experimentations by the use of an artificially localized PD source. Furthermore, the proposed method can capture the light signal emitted by the discharge. Quite in contrast to many commonly used sensor-based methods, our approach avoids the need of amplifying the light signal strength making its practical implantation much convenient. The proposed method promises strong potential for field application.

Variational Hilbert Quantitative Phase Imaging

Utilizing the refractive index as the endogenous contrast agent to noninvasively study transparent cells is a working principle of emerging quantitative phase imaging (QPI). In this contribution, we propose the Variational Hilbert Quantitative Phase Imaging (VHQPI)-end-to-end purely computational add-on module able to improve performance of a QPI-unit without hardware modifications. The VHQPI, deploying unique merger of tailored variational image decomposition and enhanced Hilbert spiral transform, adaptively provides high quality map of sample-induced phase delay, accepting particularly wide range of input single-shot interferograms (from off-axis to quasi on-axis configurations). It especially promotes high space-bandwidth-product QPI configurations alleviating the spectral overlapping problem. The VHQPI is tailored to deal with cumbersome interference patterns related to detailed locally varying biological objects with possibly high dynamic range of phase and relatively low carrier. In post-processing, the slowly varying phase-term associated with the instrumental optical aberrations is eliminated upon variational analysis to further boost the phase-imaging capabilities. The VHQPI is thoroughly studied employing numerical simulations and successfully validated using static and dynamic cells phase-analysis. It compares favorably with other single-shot phase reconstruction techniques based on the Fourier and Hilbert-Huang transforms, both in terms of visual inspection and quantitative evaluation, potentially opening up new possibilities in QPI.

Single-shot two-frame π-shifted spatially multiplexed interference phase microscopy

Single-shot, two-frame, π-shifted spatially multiplexed interference microscopy (π-SMIM) is presented as an improvement to previous SMIM implementations, introducing a versatile, robust, fast, and accurate method for cumbersome, noisy, and low-contrast phase object analysis. The proposed π-SMIM equips a commercially available nonholographic microscope with a high-speed (video frame rate) enhanced quantitative phase imaging (QPI) capability by properly placing a beam-splitter in the microscope embodiment to simultaneously (in a single shot) record two holograms mutually phase shifted by π radians at the expense of reducing the field of view. Upon subsequent subtractive superimposition of holograms, a π-hologram is generated with reduced background and improved modulation of interference fringes. These features determine superior phase retrieval quality, obtained by employing the Hilbert spiral transform on the π-hologram, as compared with a single low-quality (low signal-to-noise ratio) hologram analysis. In addition, π-SMIM enables accurate in-vivo analysis of high dynamic range phase objects, otherwise measurable only in static regime using time-consuming phase-shifting. The technique has been validated utilizing a 20  ×    /  0.46 NA objective in a regular Olympus BX-60 upright microscope for QPI of different lines of prostate cancer cells and flowing microbeads.

Single-shot slightly off-axis digital holographic microscopy with add-on module based on beamsplitter cube

Slightly off-axis digital holographic microscopy (SO-DHM) has recently emerged as a novel experimental arrangement for quantitative phase imaging (QPI). It offers improved capabilities in conventional on-axis and off-axis interferometric configurations. In this contribution, we report on a single-shot SO-DHM approach based on an add-on module adapted to the exit port of a regular microscope. The module employs a beamsplitter (BS) cube interferometer and includes, in addition, a Stokes lens (SL) for astigmatism compensation. Each recorded frame contains two fields of view (FOVs) of the sample, where each FOV is a hologram which is phase shifted by π rads with respect to the other. These two simultaneously recorded holograms are numerically processed, in order to retrieve complex amplitude distribution with enhanced quality. The tradeoff is done in the FOV which becomes penalized as a consequence of the simultaneous recording of the two holograms in a single snapshot. Experimental validation is presented for a wide variety of samples using a regular Olympus BX-60 upright microscope. The proposed approach provides an optimized use of the imaging system, in terms of the space-bandwidth product, in comparison with off-axis configuration; allows the analysis of fast-dynamic events, owing to its single-shot capability when compared with on-axis arrangement; and becomes easily implementable in conventional white-light microscopes for upgrading them into holographic microscopes for QPI.

Is multiplexed off-axis holography for quantitative phase imaging more spatial bandwidth-efficient than on-axis holography? [Invited]

Digital holographic microcopy is a thriving imaging modality that attracts considerable research interest due to its ability not only to create excellent label-free contrast but also to supply valuable physical information regarding the density and dimensions of the sample with nanometer-scale axial sensitivity. Three basic holographic recording geometries currently exist, including on-axis, off-axis, and slightly off-axis holography, each of which enables a variety of architectures in terms of bandwidth use and compression capacity. Specifically, off-axis holography and slightly off-axis holography allow spatial hologram multiplexing, enabling one to compress more information into the same digital hologram. In this paper, we define an efficiency score to analyze the various possible architectures and compare the signal-to-noise ratio and the mean squared error obtained using each of them, thus determining the optimal holographic method.

Quantitative phase imaging system with slightly-off-axis configuration and suitable for objects both larger and smaller than the size of the image sensor

We propose a quantitative phase imaging system with exact slightly-off-axis configuration and suitable for objects both smaller and larger than the size of the effective recording region of the image sensors. In this system, the object is illuminated by a convergent spherical beam and a specially designed aperture filter is placed on the spatial frequency plane of the object wave; at the same time, a point source emitting from the edge of the aperture is taken as the reference beam, so that the optimal frequency condition for reconstruction of slightly-off-axis digital holograms can be always guaranteed for both large and small objects as well as different magnification (or the field of view) configurations. At the same time, a 1x2 single-mode optical fiber splitter is used for generating the reference and the illumination beams. Benefited from such fiber-based slightly-off-axis design, the proposed system provides a low-cost way to convert a regular microscope into a slightly-off-axis holographic one for microbiological specimens with a high spatial resolution.

Field of view scanning based quantitative interferometric microscopic cytometers for cellular imaging and analysis

Microimaging is of great significance in the biological and medical fields, since it can realize observations acting as important references for cellular research and disease diagnosis. However, traditional microscopy only offers qualitative sample contours; moreover, it is difficult to reach large-amount sample observations limited by the fixed field of view (FoV). To realize massive cellular measurements quantitatively, three designed quantitative interferometric microscopic cytometers based on the FoV scanning are introduced and compared in details in this article. These devices not only retrieve the quantitative sample phase distributions in the extended FoV, but also provide the detailed information of massive cells, such as cellular volume, area, and roundness. Considering their capabilities as quantitative imaging and large-amount sampling, it is believed that these quantitative interferometric microscopic cytometers (QIMCs) can be potentially adopted in high-throughput cell imaging and statistical analysis for both the biological and medical applications.

Analysis of red blood cell parameters by Talbot-projected fringes

Red blood cell (RBC) anomalies are significant symptoms for identification of health disorders and several blood diseases, which involve the modification of the parameters and biophysical characteristics of such cells. The aim of this study is to measure the three-dimensional phase information of healthy RBCs and their parameters, such as cell diameter, thickness, and hemoglobin (Hb) content, using Talbot-projected fringes. The Talbot image of linear grating is projected onto an RBC slide. The deformed grating lines due to the shape and refractive index of RBCs are recorded by a CCD camera through a 20× microscope objective. Hilbert transform is used to extract the phase image from the deformed projected grating lines. Experimentally calculated values of diameter (8.2  μm), thickness (2.7  μm), and Hb content (28.7  pg/cell) are well within the limits available in the literature. The proposed system is robust and user-friendly and performs the imaging of RBCs with high axial and lateral resolution (2.19  μm).

An advanced phase retrieval algorithm in N-step phase-shifting interferometry with unknown phase shifts

In phase-shifting interferometry with unknown phase shifts, a normalization and orthogonalization phase-shifting algorithm (NOPSA) is proposed to achieve phase retrieval. The background of interferogram is eliminated through using the orthogonality of complex sinusoidal function; and the influence of phase shifts deviation on accuracy of phase retrieval is avoided through both normalization and orthogonalization processing. Compared with the current algorithms with unknown phase shifts, the proposed algorithm reveals significantly faster computation speed, higher accuracy, better stability and non-sensitivity of phase shifts deviation.

Investigation on dynamics of red blood cells through their behavior as biophotonic lenses

The possibility to adopt biological matter as photonic optical elements can open scenarios in biophotonics research. Recently, it has been demonstrated that a red blood cell (RBC) can be seen as an optofluidic microlens by showing its imaging capability as well as its focal tunability. Moreover, correlation between an RBC’s morphology and its behavior as a refractive optical element has been established and its exploitation for biomedical diagnostic purposes has been foreseen. In fact, any deviation from the healthy RBC morphology can be seen as additional aberration in the optical wavefront passing through the cell. By this concept, accurate localization of focal spots of RBCs can become very useful in the blood disorders identification. We investigate the three-dimensional positioning of such focal spots over time for samples with two different osmolarity conditions, i.e., when they assume discocyte and spherical shapes, respectively. We also demonstrate that a temporal variation of an RBC’s focal points along the optical axis is correlated to the temporal fluctuations in the RBC’s thickness maps. Furthermore, we show a sort of synchronization of the whole erythrocytes ensemble.

Quantitative phase imaging by single-shot Hilbert-Huang phase microscopy

We propose a novel single-shot Hilbert-Huang transform-based algorithm applied to digital holographic microscopy (DHM) for robust, fast, and accurate single-shot quantitative phase imaging in on-axis and off-axis configurations. Fringe pattern with possible defects and closed fringes are adaptively filtered and accurately phase demodulated using local fringe direction estimation. Experimental validation of the proposed techniques is presented as the DHM study of microbeads and red blood cells phase samples. Obtained results compare very favorably with the Fourier approach (off-axis) and temporal phase shifting (on-axis).

Automated Fourier space region-recognition filtering for off-axis digital holographic microscopy

Automated label-free quantitative imaging of biological samples can greatly benefit high throughput diseases diagnosis. Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is a powerful quantitative label-free imaging tool that retrieves structural details of cellular samples non-invasively. In off-axis DHM, a proper spatial filtering window in Fourier space is crucial to the quality of reconstructed phase image. Here we describe a region-recognition approach that combines shape recognition with an iterative thresholding method to extracts the optimal shape of frequency components. The region recognition technique offers fully automated adaptive filtering that can operate with a variety of samples and imaging conditions. When imaging through optically scattering biological hydrogel matrix, the technique surpasses previous histogram thresholding techniques without requiring any manual intervention. Finally, we automate the extraction of the statistical difference of optical height between malaria parasite infected and uninfected red blood cells. The method described here paves way to greater autonomy in automated DHM imaging for imaging live cell in thick cell cultures.

Phase derivative method for reconstruction of slightly off-axis digital holograms

A phase derivative (PD) method is proposed for reconstruction of off-axis holograms. In this method, a phase distribution of the tested object wave constrained within 0 to pi radian is firstly worked out by a simple analytical formula; then it is corrected to its right range from -pi to pi according to the sign characteristics of its first-order derivative. A theoretical analysis indicates that this PD method is particularly suitable for reconstruction of slightly off-axis holograms because it only requires the spatial frequency of the reference beam larger than spatial frequency of the tested object wave in principle. In addition, because the PD method belongs to a pure local method with no need of any integral operation or phase shifting algorithm in process of the phase retrieval, it could have some advantages in reducing computer load and memory requirements to the image processing system. Some experimental results are given to demonstrate the feasibility of the method.

Compact and portable low-coherence interferometer with off-axis geometry for quantitative phase microscopy and nanoscopy

We present a simple-to-align, highly-portable interferometer, which is able to capture wide-field, off-axis interference patterns from transparent samples under low-coherence illumination. This small-dimensions and low-cost device can be connected to the output of a transmission microscope illuminated by a low-coherence source and measure sub-nanometric optical thickness changes in a label-free manner. In contrast to our previously published design, the τ interferometer, the new design is able to fully operate in an off-axis holographic geometry, where the interference fringes have high spatial frequency, and the interference area is limited only by the coherence length of the source, and thus it enables to easily obtain high-quality quantitative images of static and dynamic samples. We present several applications for the new design including nondestructive optical testing of transparent microscopic elements with nanometric thickness and live-cell imaging.