On chip two-photon metabolic imaging for drug toxicity testing

We have developed a microfluidic system suitable to be incorporated with a metabolic imaging method to monitor the drug response of cells cultured on a chip. The cells were perfusion-cultured to mimic the blood flow in vivo. Label-free optical measurements and imaging of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and flavin adenine dinucleotide fluorescence intensity and morphological changes were evaluated non-invasively. Drug responses calculated using redox ratio imaging were compared with the drug toxicity testing results obtained with a traditional well-plate system. We found that our method can accurately monitor the cell viability and drug response and that the IC50 value obtained from imaging analysis was sensitive and comparable with a commonly used cell viability assay: MTS (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-5-(3-carboxymethoxyphenyl)-2-(4-sulfo-phenyl)-2H-tetrazolium) assay. Our method could serve as a fast, non-invasive, and reliable way for drug screening and toxicity testing as well as enabling real-time monitoring of in vitro cultured cells.