Quantitative measurement of optical parameters of cell lines 5-8F and 6-10B using polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography

The aim was to test whether the typical NPC cell lines of 5-8F (high tumorigenesis and metastasis) and 6-10B (low tumorigenesis and metastasis) could be differentiated by polarization sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT). We imaged the two types of low cellular differentiated NPC cell lines 5-8F and 6-10B pellets using PS-OCT; then extracted the optical parameters of attenuate coefficient and anisotropy from the A-scan lines based on the multiple scattering model; and compared their phase retardation. The fitting scattering coefficients were μs = 10.91 ± 0.45 and μs = 11.33 ± 0.27 cm−1 for 5-8F and 6-10B pellets (p < 0.05), respectively; and the anisotropy factors were g = 0.900 ± 0.013 and g = 0.885 ± 0.008 for 5-8F and 6-10B pellets (p < 0.01), respectively. While the phase retardation of 6-10B was a little faster than 5-8F. These results indicated that PS-OCT could differentiate the two cell lines, and had the potential ability for typing the tissue of NPC.