Organoid and Organ-on-a-chip Imaging
For many years cells cultured in vitro have served as model systems for countless research applications. Cultured cells are kept in suspension or adhering to a vessel surface. However, the physiology of isolated cells is very different from that of complete tissues or organisms. For this reason, various 3D cell culture systems are rapidly gaining in popularity, including organoids, organs-on-a-chip, spheroids, and more. Organs-on-a-chip are particularly promising drug screening models as they can recapitulate key functions of the organ/tissue of interest in a more standardized system. Organs-on-a-chip, and organoids more generally, often allow for the use of multiple cell types in their organization.
Products for Organoid and Organ-on-a-chip Imaging
Nikon’s recently introduced AX / AX R series of confocal microscopes are applicable toward 3D cell culture imaging. The usability of the AX / AX R is improved thanks to the new artificial intelligence (AI)-based Autosignal.ai software module; optimal confocal settings (e.g., laser power, gain) are automatically identified in seconds. These confocal systems uniquely provide a large 25 mm field of view (FOV) coupled with 8192 x 8192-pixel resolution scanning, which may be useful for imaging large specimens such as organoids at full resolution and without tiled acquisition. Live imaging benefits from the high-speed resonant scanner featured on the AX R model, which allows for fast imaging with up to 2048 x 2048-pixel resolution across the entire 25 mm FOV.
The Yokogawa CSU-W1 spinning disk confocal system is also suited to imaging various types of 3D cell cultures. While spinning disk systems such as the CSU-W1 are more limited in imaging depth than point-scanning systems, the CSU-W1 incorporates an extra-wide pinhole spacing to increase imaging depth compared to other spinning disk confocal models by reducing pinhole crosstalk. The CSU-W1 also features a large ~22.5 mm field of view and an option for a spinning disk with 25 μm diameter pinholes, which allows for imaging with lower magnification objectives and larger FOV while better maintaining confocality.
