Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto di Cibernetica 'E. Caianiello', Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli (NA) I-80078, Italy.
1] Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR)-Istituto di Cibernetica 'E. Caianiello', Via Campi Flegrei 34, Pozzuoli (NA) I-80078, Italy [2] Center for Advanced Biomaterials for Health Care@CRIB, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Largo Barsanti e Matteucci 53, Napoli 80125, Italy.
Nat Commun. 2015 Mar 11;6:6502. doi: 10.1038/ncomms7502.
The perspective of using live cells as lenses could open new revolutionary and intriguing scenarios in the future of biophotonics and biomedical sciences for endoscopic vision, local laser treatments via optical fibres and diagnostics. Here we show that a suspended red blood cell (RBC) behaves as an adaptive liquid-lens at microscale, thus demonstrating its imaging capability and tunable focal length. In fact, thanks to the intrinsic elastic properties, the RBC can swell up from disk volume of 90 fl up to a sphere reaching 150 fl, varying focal length from negative to positive values. These live optofluidic lenses can be fully controlled by triggering the liquid buffer's chemistry. Real-time accurate measurement of tunable focus capability of RBCs is reported through dynamic wavefront characterization, showing agreement with numerical modelling. Moreover, in analogy to adaptive optics testing, blood diagnosis is demonstrated by screening abnormal cells through focal-spot analysis applied to an RBC ensemble as a microlens array.
利用活细胞作为透镜的观点可能会为生物光子学和生物医学科学的内窥镜视觉、通过光纤进行局部激光治疗和诊断的未来开辟新的革命性和有趣的场景。在这里，我们展示了悬浮的红细胞（RBC）在微尺度上表现为自适应液体透镜，从而证明了其成像能力和可调焦距。事实上，由于固有的弹性特性，RBC 可以从 90fl 的盘状体积膨胀到 150fl 的球形，焦距从负到正变化。这些活体光流体透镜可以通过触发液体缓冲剂的化学性质来完全控制。通过动态波前特征化报告了 RBC 可调焦能力的实时精确测量，与数值建模结果一致。此外，通过类似自适应光学测试，通过应用于 RBC 集作为微透镜阵列的焦点光斑分析来筛选异常细胞，实现了血液诊断。
