Fast imaging of cardiomyocyte dynamics alterations after drug treatment utilizing quantitative phase digital holographic microscopy

Digital holographic microscopy (DHM) is an interferometry-based variant of quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) that can be integrated modular into various common microscopes for label-free imaging of fast cellular morphology changes in a biomedical laboratory environment. We have utilized a fiber optics-based off-axis DHM concept to monitor the dynamics of beating cardiomyocytes after drug treatment. Our results show that local height changes due to cellular contractions can be detected spatially resolved at the subcellular level. Moreover, we demonstrate that a temporal resolution in the millisecond range is sufficient to detect drug induced increases and decreases of the beating rate.