Non-destructive viability assessment of cancer cell spheroids using dynamic optical coherence tomography with trypan blue validation.

3D cell cultures are widely used in biomedical research for the recapitulation of microenvironments. Viability assessment and monitoring of these intricate conformations remain an open problem as standard cell viability protocols based on colorimetry or microscopy are not directly applicable to intact 3D samples. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been explored extensively for subsurface structural and quasi-functional analysis of 3D cell cultures and tissue.