Optical projection tomography imaging of single cells in 3D gellan gum hydrogel

Abstract

3D cell culturing has become attractive in biology and tissue engineering laboratories as it mimics the natural environment for the cells to grow, differentiate and interact in all directions. To study cells and cellular interactions within 3D, cell culture requires a non-invasive, non-toxic, and high resolution imaging technique. The existing imaging techniques face challenges to image cells in 3D macro-scale environment because of the sample size, photo-bleaching or resolution requirements. Optical projection tomography (OPT) is a non-invasive 3D imaging technique for samples in the range of 1-10 mm. It works in both emission and transmission modes for fluorescence and bright-field imaging, respectively. Here, we demonstrate the use of OPT for imaging of cells and cellular materials in 3D gellan gum hydrogel. Fluorescence projection images showed alive and dead human lung fibroblast cells encapsulated in hydrogel. The mineralized extracellular matrix secreted by the human adipose stem cells in the hydrogel was evenly distributed throughout the sample and analyzable in 3D volume.