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Refereed/Peer-reviewed Measuring tumor cell invasiveness through 3D tissues, particularly at the single-cell level, can provide important mechanistic understanding and assist in identifying therapeutic targets of tumor invasion. However, current experimental approaches, including standard in vitro invasion assays, have limited physiological relevance and offer insufficient insight into the vast heterogeneity in tumor cell migration through tissues. To address these issues, here the concept of optical cellular micromotion is reported on, where digital holographic microscopy is used to map the optical nano- to submicrometer thickness fluctuations within single-cells. These fluctuations are driven by the dynamic movement of subcellular structures including the cytoskeleton and inherently associated with the biological processes involved in cell invasion within tissues. It is experimentally demonstrated that the optical cellular micromotion correlates with tumor cells motility and invasiveness both at the population and single-cell levels. In addition, the optical cellular micromotion significantly reduced upon treatment with migrastatic drugs that inhibit tumor cell invasion. These results demonstrate that micromotion measurements can rapidly and non-invasively determine the invasive behavior of single tumor cells within tissues, yielding a new and powerful tool to assess the efficacy of approaches targeting tumor cell invasiveness.

As the field of tissue engineering continues to progress, there is a deep need for non-invasive, label-free imaging technologies that can monitor tissue growth and health within thick three-dimensional (3D) constructs. Amongst the many imaging modalities under investigation, optical coherence tomography (OCT) has emerged as a promising tool, enabling non-destructive in situ characterization of scaffolds and engineered tissues. However, the lack of optical contrast between cells and scaffold materials using this technique remains a challenge. In this communication, we show that mapping the optical phase fluctuations resulting from cellular viability and motility allows for the distinction of live cells from their surrounding scaffold environment. Motility imaging was performed via a common-path optical coherence phase microscope (OCPM), an OCT modality that has been shown to be sensitive to nanometer-level fluctuations. More specifically, we examined the development of human adipose-derived stem cells and/or murine pre-osteoblasts within two distinct scaffold systems, commercially available alginate sponges and custom-microfabricated poly(d, l-lactic-co-glycolic acid) fibrous scaffolds. Cellular motility is demonstrated as an endogenous source of contrast for OCPM, enabling real-time, label-free monitoring of 3D engineered tissue development.