Label-free monitoring of spatiotemporal changes in the stem cell cytoskeletons in time-lapse phase-contrast microscopy

• Main Authors: Jiang, C.-F (Author), Sun, Y.-M (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Optica Publishing Group (formerly OSA) 2022
• Subjects: Actin cytoskeleton; Cell culture; Cell cytoskeleton; Cell migration; Dynamic structural changes; In-vitro; Label-free monitoring; Phase-contrast microscopy; Proteins; Spatio-temporal changes; Stem cells; Stem-cell; Textures; Vitro culture
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 Investigation of the dynamic structural changes in the actin cytoskeleton during cell migration provides crucial information about the physiological conditions of a stem cell during in-vitro culture. Here we proposed a quantitative analytical model associated with texture extraction with cell tracking techniques for in situ monitoring of the cytoskeletal density change of stem cells in phase-contrast microscopy without fluorescence staining. The reliability of the model in quantifying the texture density with different orientation was first validated using a series of simulated textural images. The capability of the method to reflect the spatiotemporal regulation of the cytoskeletal structure of a living stem cell was further proved by applying it to a set of 72 h phase-contrast microscopic video of the growth dynamics of mesenchymal stem cells in vitro culture. © 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement