title: In situ microscopic cytometry enables noninvasive viability assessment of animal cells by measuring entropy states.
abstract: Current state of the art to determine the viability of animal cell suspension cultures is based on sampling and subsequent counting using specific staining assays. We demonstrate for the first time a noninvasive in situ imaging cytometry capable of determining the statistics of a morphologic transition during cell death in suspension cultures. To this end, we measure morphometric inhomogeneity--defined as information entropy--in cell in situ micrographs. We found that the cells are partitioned into two discrete entropy states broadened by phenotypical variability. During the normal course of a culture or by inducing cell death, we observe the transition of cells between these states. As shown by comparison with ex situ diagnostics, the entropy transition happens before or while the cytoplasmatic membrane is loosing its ability to exclude charged dyes. Therefore, measurement of morphometric inhomogeneity constitutes a noninvasive assessment of viability in real time.
authors.affiliation: Mannheim University of Applied Sciences, Paul-Wittsack-Str. 10, Mannheim, Germany. p.wiedemann@hs-mannheim.de
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wiedemann
authors.forename: Jean S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Guez
authors.forename: Hans B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Wiegemann
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Egner
authors.forename: Juan C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Quintana
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Asanza-Maldonado
authors.forename: Marcos
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Filipaki
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wilkesman
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schwiebert
authors.forename: Jean P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Cassar
authors.forename: Pascal
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Dhulster
authors.forename: Hajo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suhr
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival; D003584:Cytological Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D019277:Entropy; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000379:methods*