RESUMO
The three-dimensional (3D) tumor spheroid model is a critical tool for high-throughput ovarian cancer research and anticancer drug development in vitro. However, the 3D structure prevents high-resolution imaging of the inner side of the spheroids. We aim to visualize and characterize 3D morphological and physiological information of the contact multicellular ovarian tumor spheroids growing over time. We intend to further evaluate the distinctive evolutions of the tumor spheroid and necrotic tissue volumes in different cell numbers and determine the most appropriate mathematical model for fitting the growth of tumor spheroids and necrotic tissues. A label-free and noninvasive swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) imaging platform was applied to obtain two-dimensional (2D) and 3D morphologies of ovarian tumor spheroids over 18 days. Ovarian tumor spheroids of two different initial cell numbers (5,000- and 50,000- cells) were cultured and imaged (each day) over the time of growth in 18 days. Four mathematical models (Exponential-Linear, Gompertz, logistic, and Boltzmann) were employed to describe the growth kinetics of the tumor spheroids volume and necrotic tissues. Ovarian tumor spheroids have different growth curves with different initial cell numbers and their growths contain different stages with various growth rates over 18 days. The volumes of 50,000-cells spheroids and the corresponding necrotic tissues are larger than that of the 5,000-cells spheroids. The formation of necrotic tissue in 5,000-cells numbers is slower than that in the 50,000-cells ones. Moreover, the Boltzmann model exhibits the best fitting performance for the growth of tumor spheroids and necrotic tissues. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can serve as a promising imaging modality to visualize and characterize morphological and physiological features of multicellular ovarian tumor spheroids. The Boltzmann model integrating with 3D OCT data of ovarian tumor spheroids provides great potential for high-throughput cancer research in vitro and aiding in drug development.
RESUMO
Chicks are an excellent model for studying myopia. To study the change of the ocular structures in chicks, ultrasound is mostly used. However, it suffers from limited spatial resolution. In this study, we investigated the axial length (AL) and the thickness of different ocular structures in chicks' eye undergoing visually induced changes using a swept-source optical coherence tomography (SS-OCT) system in vivo. Two groups of chicks wore a translucent plastic goggle (n = 6) over the right eye to induce form-deprivation myopia. Following 12 days of form deprivation, goggles were removed in one group of chicks (n = 3), and they were allowed to experience 5 days of unrestricted vision (recovery). Goggles remained in place for a total of 17 days for the remaining 3 chicks. A separate group of 3 chicks were untreated and served as normal control. Ocular dimensions were measured in control, myopic, and recovered eyes using an SS-OCT system. We found myopic chick eyes had significantly thicker AL, lens thickness (LT), anterior chamber depth (ACD), and vitreous chamber depth (VCD), but significantly thinner retina thickness (RT) and choroid thickness (ChT) compared to the control eyes. Following 5 days of recovery, the cornea thickness (CT), retina pigment epithelium thickness (RPET), and ChT were significantly thicker, while the ACD and LT became significantly thinner compared to that of myopic eyes. SS-OCT can serve as a promising tool to provide measurements of the entire ocular structures, for evaluating the change of thickness and depth of different ocular structures in chicks in vivo. The change of AL in the myopic and recovered chick eyes can be attributed to the thickness alterations of different ocular structures. Altogether, this work demonstrated the feasibility of SS-OCT in chick myopic research and exhibited new insights into the changes of ocular structures in chicks experiencing myopia after unrestricted vision recovery.