OCT-based quantification of flow velocity, shear force, and power generated by a biological ciliated surface (Conference Presentation)

In cilia-driven fluid flow physiology, quantification of flow velocity, shearing force, and power dissipation is important in defining abnormal ciliary function. The capacity to generate flow can be robustly described in terms of shearing force. Dissipated power can be related to net ATP consumption by ciliary molecular motors. To date, however, only flow velocity can be routinely quantified in a non-invasive, non-contact manner. Additionally, traditional power-based metrics rely on metabolic consumption that reflects energy consumption not just from cilia but also from all active cellular processes. Here, we demonstrate the estimation of all three of these quantities (flow velocity, shear force, and power dissipation) using only optical coherence tomography (OCT). Specifically, we develop a framework that can extract force and power information from vectorial flow velocity fields obtained using OCT-based methods. We do so by (a) estimating the viscous stress tensor from flow velocity fields to estimate shearing force and (b) using the viscous stress tensor to estimate the power dissipation function to infer total mechanical power. These estimates have the advantage of (a) requiring only a single modality, (b) being non-invasive in nature, and (c) being reflective of only the net power work generated by a ciliated surface. We demonstrate our all-optical approach to the estimation of these parameters in the Xenopus animal model system under normal and increased viscous loading. Our preliminary data support the hypothesis that the Xenopus ciliated surface can increase force output under loading conditions.