Investigation of cell dynamics in 3D cell spheroids and cell interaction with 3D printed scaffolds by mOCT

Abstract

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a non-invasive and label-free imaging modality based on the detection of backscattered light in biological samples. As microscopic OCT (mOCT) combines high axial and lateral resolution by using a supercontinuum light source and a high numerical aperture objective, an investigation of biological and printed samples at subcellular level is feasible. The additional excellent depth resolution enables mOCT to be a suitable quality control of 3D printed samples. The use of speckle variance (SV) adds information about cell viability. Here we present the feasibility of investigating cell viability within a cell spheroid and monitoring the cell interaction with bioprinted scaffolds using mOCT.