Limitations on cell volume determination using three-dimensional optical microscopy

Abstract

One important application for three-dimensional microscopy is the determination of the volumes of biological cells. In this paper we investigate the application of three-dimensional deconvolution techniques to the problem of cell volume determination. The theoretical discussion is based on a Fourier sampling condition for reliable image reconstruction and it is shown, using this condition and simulated images, that the cell volume determination is reliable only for cells with a shape and orientation such that their length along the optic axis is much greater than their width.