High-accuracy three-dimensional tomographic observation of cell clusters

Digital holographic micro-tomography (DHMT) is widely used for three-dimensional (3-D) detections in biomedical research, from which the information of refractive indexes (RI) distributions of cells obtained can reflect some pathological states. When measuring cells, a capillary is usually used to contain and rotate them. The accuracy of diffraction tomography methods, which is commonly used, is likely to decrease when the object induces complex scattering effects, especially when measuring cell clusters. The nonlinear algorithm based on multi-slice wave propagation method (WPM) we proposed earlier is preferred in these situations. In this paper, we perform 3-D measurements of cell clusters using the setup-rotating system and the WPM-based nonlinear algorithm. Quantitative 3-D distributions of RI can be obtained accurately to display the structures of the cell clusters. The experimental results demonstrate that the WPM-based nonlinear algorithm can provide high accuracy for cell clusters.