Holographic optical coherence microscope for high-penetration and label free imaging of intracellular activities

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 21H01836
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 30020:Optical engineering and photon science-related
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Yoshiaki Yasuno 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 教授 (10344871)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 松阪 諭 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 客員研究員 (00372665) ; 巻田 修一 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 准教授 (50533345) ; 三浦 雅博 東京医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (60199958) ; 福田 慎一 筑波大学, 医学医療系, 准教授 (80643246)
• Project Period (FY): 2021-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 光コヒーレンストモグラフィー / OCT / Dyamic OCT / in vitro / drug testing / imaging theory

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this project, we established a new microscopic optical imaging method, dynamic optical coherence tomography (dynamic OCT), for non-invasive, label-free, three-dimensional visualization of biological activity. We have successfully demonstrated drug response imaging of tumor spheroids, visualization of the fibrosis process of alveolar organoids, visualization of the zonal structure of mouse liver, and evaluation of reduced tissue activity in a renal injury model by this dynamic OCT. Furthermore, we attempted to mathematically investigated the speckle phenomenon of OCT, which is the basis of dynamic OCT, and reveled that speckles are additive noise and that there is an incoherent speckle-free component in the OCT image.

Free Research Field

光工学 / 生体工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

Dynamic OCT の開発により、以下の２つのことが可能になる。(1) 近年、薬剤開発における重要性がまし、その培養技術が急速に発展しているものの、その評価手法が不十分であった「厚い培養サンプル」の全体評価。(2) 同じ試料の経時的な薬剤反応可視化（longitudinal evaluation）。これらが可能になることにより、低コストかつ迅速な薬剤開発、基礎医学研究が可能になる。