Investigation of refractive index dynamics during embryo development using digital holographic microscopy

Abstract

Embryo quality is a crucial factor affecting live birth outcomes. However, an accurate diagnostic for embryo quality remains elusive in the in vitro fertilization clinic. Determining physical parameters of the embryo may offer key information for this purpose. Here, we demonstrate that digital holographic microscopy (DHM) can rapidly and non-invasively assess the refractive index of mouse embryos. We showed that DHM can detect spatio-temporal changes in refractive index during embryo development that are reflective of its lipid content. As accumulation of intracellular lipid is known to compromise embryo health, DHM may prove beneficial in developing an accurate, non-invasive, multimodal diagnostic.

Assessing embryo quality with digital holographic microscopy

“…The sample stage was heated to 37℃ to maintain a constant incubation temperature. Full and detailed information on the imaging system and sample preparation procedures can be found in Ref [2,3]. The phase map is retrieved from the hologram by applying a reconstruction algorithm as detailed in Ref [4].…”