Diagnosis of space-induced effects on blood components by label-free optical technique and microfluidics

A recently developed technology is presented on the combination of label-free imaging and microfluidics boosted by artificial intelligence architectures to detect morphological variations induced on biological cells as, for example, blood components. The new tool is named Holographic Image Flow Cytometry (HIFC) system where Quantitative Phase Contrast (QPMs) images are retrieved for cell flowing and rotating into a microfluidics circuit. The HIFC is based on interferometric imaging scheme thus avoiding fluorescence based sample preparations. For each cells travelling in the field of view multiple images are recorded at different rotation angles thus achieving a wide and informative dataset to identify different cell populations. Furthermore it has been proved that such technology can provide tomographic phase contrast images at single cell level. The HIFC system is able to supply about 200 images for each rotating cells. In the present manuscript the imaging system and the numerical processing will be described and the main results reviewed. Among others, the application of the technology on model lymphocytes Juckart cells irradiated at different radiation doses will be presented. Furthermore, recent improvement in the stability of the optical setup will be reported.