Cell monitoring with optical coherence tomography

Background aims: We evaluated a commercially available instrument, OCTiCell (chromologic.com/octi-cell), for monitoring cell growth in suspended agitated bioreactors based on optical coherence tomog-raphy. OCTiCell is an in-line, completely non-invasive instrument that can operate on any suspended -cell bioreactor with a window or transparent wall. In traditional optical coherence tomography, the imaging beam is rastered over the sample to form a three-dimensional image. OCTiCell, instead uses a fixed imaging beam and takes advantage of the motion of the media to move the cells across the inter-rogating optical beam.Results: We found strong correlations between the non-invasive, non-contact, reagent-free OCTiCell meas-urements of cell concentration and viability and those obtained from the automated cell counter, and the XTT viability assay, which is a colorimetric assay for quantifying metabolic activity. Conclusions: This novel cell monitoring method can adapt to different bioreactor form factors and could reduce the labor cost and contamination risks associated with cell growth monitoring.(c) 2022 International Society for Cell & Gene Therapy. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.