Cheng Frank Zhong

Quantitative Two-photon Flow Cytometry

Two-photon excitation in conjunction with a suitable multi-dye labeling strategy enables quantitative flow cytometry under conditions of nonuniform flow, such as may be encountered in simple capillary flow or in vivo

Quantitative two-photon flow cytometry—in vitro and in vivo

Flow cytometry is a powerful technique for quantitative characterization of fluorescence in cells. Quantitation is achieved by ensuring a high degree of uniformity in the optical excitation and detection, generally by using a highly controlled flow. Two-photon excitation has the advantages that it enables simultaneous excitation of multiple dyes and achieves a very high SNR through simplified filtering and fluorescence background reduction. We demonstrate that two-photon excitation in conjunction with a targeted multidye labeling strategy enables quantitative flow cytometry even under conditions of nonuniform flow, such as may be encountered in simple capillary flow or in vivo. By matching the excitation volume to the size of a cell, single-cell detection is ensured. Labeling cells with targeted nanoparticles containing multiple fluorophores enables normalization of the fluorescence signal and thus quantitative measurements under nonuniform excitation. Flow cytometry using two-photon excitation is demonstrated for detection and differentiation of particles and cells both in vitro in a glass capillary and in vivo in the blood stream of live mice. The technique also enables us to monitor the fluorescent dye labeling dynamics in vivo. In addition, we present a unique two-beam scanning method to conduct cell size measurement in nonuniform flow.

Two-photon flow cytometry

Flow cytometry is a powerful technique for obtaining quantitative information from fluorescence in cells. Quantization is achieved by assuring a high degree of uniformity in the optical excitation and detection, generally by using a highly controlled flow such as is obtained via hydrodynamic focusing. In this work, we demonstrate a two-beam, two-channel detection and two-photon excitation flow cytometry (T3FC) system that enables multi-dye analysis to be performed very simply, with greatly relaxed requirements on the fluid flow. Two-photon excitation using a femtosecond near-infrared (NIR) laser has the advantages that it enables simultaneous excitation of multiple dyes and achieves very high signal-to-noise ratio through simplified filtering and fluorescence background reduction. By matching the excitation volume to the size of a cell, single-cell detection is ensured. Labeling of cells by targeted nanoparticles with multiple fluorophores enables normalization of the fluorescence signal and thus ratiometric measurements under nonuniform excitation. Quantitative size measurements can also be done even under conditions of nonuniform flow via a two-beam layout. This innovative detection scheme not only considerably simplifies the fluid flow system and the excitation and collection optics, it opens the way to quantitative cytometry in simple and compact microfluidics systems, or in vivo.

Two-photon, two-color in vivo flow cytometry to noninvasively monitor multiple circulating cell lines

We have developed a new two-photon system for in vivo flow cytometry, thereby allowing us to simultaneously quantify different circulating populations in a single animal. The instrument was able to resolve minute-by-minute depletion dynamics of injected fluorescent microspheres at finer time scales than conventional flow cytometry. Also observed were the circulation dynamics of human MCF-7 and MDA-MB-435 breast cancer cells, which have low and high metastatic potential, respectively. After co-injection of both cell types into mice, markedly greater numbers of MCF-7 cells were present in the circulation at early time points. While low metastatic MCF-7 cells were cleared from the vascular system within 24 hours, detectable numbers of metastatic MDA-MB- 435 cells in the circulation remained constant over time. When we replace the commercial (80-MHz) NIR excitation laser with a reduced-repetition-rate (20-MHz) mode-locked oscillator, the signal is enhanced four-fold, enabling superior detection in blood of cell lines expressing fluorescent proteins tdTomato and mPlum (crosslabeled with DiI and DiD). Detection sensitivity versus incident laser power is understood in terms of detected event photon count distribution, which can be predicted with simple fluorophore distribution assumptions. The technique of two-color, two-photon flow cytometry greatly enhances the capabilities of ex vivo flow cytometry to investigate dynamics of circulating cells in cancer and other important diseases.

In vivo monitoring of two circulating cell lines using two-color two-photon cytometry

Two-photon flow cytometry is demonstrated for simultaneous monitoring of two separate cell lines in a mouse. The technique is used to study the roles of proteins in regulating the trafficking of circulating metastatic cancer cells.

Errata: Quantitative two-photon flow cytometry—in vitro and in vivo

This PDF file contains the errata for “JBO Vol. 13 Issue 05 Paper 2993165” for JBO Vol. 13 Issue 05

Erratum: Quantitative two-photon flow cytometry - In vitro and in vivo (Journal of Biomedical Optics (2008) 13 (034008))

This PDF file contains the errata for “JBO Vol. 13 Issue 05 Paper 2993165” for JBO Vol. 13 Issue 05