Wu Chung-Hsin, Lai Xin-Ji, Cheng Chau-Jern, Yu Yu-Chen, Chang Chun-Yen
Appl Opt. 2014 Sep 20;53(27):G192-7. doi: 10.1364/AO.53.00G192.
Therapeutic use of Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs) is a new approach to treat neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The detection of soma volume and neurite outgrowth of living neurons is a highly relevant biomarker related to various application fields, including therapy efficacy and drug safety evaluation. Through the use of digital holographic microscopy (DHM), we may evaluate the therapeutic effect of CHMs in curing neurodegeneration. Panax ginseng has been used in traditional Chinese herbal medicine for centuries. In this study, DHM is applied to monitor the three-dimensional morphology change of retinoic acid-induced human neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells during Panax ginseng treatment. We demonstrate the capability of DHM to detect noninvasively SH-SY5Y cell apoptosis and rescue through the measurement of neuronal volume and neurite outgrowth regulation without any labeling reagent. Through DHM, we observed the phase images of the rapidly shrinking cells with decreasing soma volume and shortening neurite outgrowth during glutamate treatments. Then shrinkage in glutamate-induced cells is significantly alleviated during Panax ginseng treatment. The results through DHM are consistent with the result from MTT assay for assessing cell viability during Panax ginseng treatment. Thus, we suggest that application of DHM for measuring soma volume and neurite outgrowth of living neurons may be one appropriate therapeutic evaluation for CHMs.
中药的治疗用途是治疗神经退行性疾病（如阿尔茨海默病和帕金森病）的一种新方法。检测活神经元的胞体体积和神经突生长是与包括治疗效果和药物安全性评估在内的各种应用领域高度相关的生物标志物。通过使用数字全息显微镜（DHM），我们可以评估中药在治疗神经退行性变方面的治疗效果。人参在传统中药中已使用了数百年。在本研究中，应用DHM监测人参治疗期间维甲酸诱导的人神经母细胞瘤SH-SY5Y细胞的三维形态变化。我们证明了DHM能够通过测量神经元体积和神经突生长调节来无创检测SH-SY5Y细胞凋亡和挽救，无需任何标记试剂。通过DHM，我们观察到在谷氨酸处理期间，随着胞体体积减小和神经突生长缩短，细胞迅速收缩的相位图像。然后在人参治疗期间，谷氨酸诱导的细胞收缩明显减轻。DHM的结果与评估人参治疗期间细胞活力的MTT试验结果一致。因此，我们认为应用DHM测量活神经元的胞体体积和神经突生长可能是对中药进行适当治疗评估的一种方法。
