A Novel Microfluidic Platform for Label-Free 3D Imaging of Biological Cells

We report a novel microfluidic platform for label-free 3D imaging of cellular and intracellular components of biological cells. The device uses two opposing air-liquid interfaces integrated inside a microchannel which act as tunable constriction, as reported in our earlier work. In this paper, we present a new phenomenon: when the cells approach the air-liquid interfaces, they rotate along the direction of flow owing to velocity gradients generated due to the asymmetric shape of the interface. The rotation of the cell was recorded using a high-speed camera. Cell and nucleus boundary were mapped using image processing and 3D reconstruction was done using the point cloud. We have calculated the volume, surface area and ellipticity of cell and its nucleus.