Methods for measuring the infrared spectra of biological cells.
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy of biological cells is a growing area of research, with many papers focusing on differences between the spectra of cancerous and noncancerous cells. Much of this research has been performed using a monolayer of dehydrated cells. We posit that the use of monolayers can introduce artefacts that lead to an apparent but inaccurate measurement of differences between cancerous and noncancerous cells. Additionally, the use of dried cells complicates the extraction of biochemical information from the IR spectra. We demonstrate that using suspensions of viable cells in aqueous suspension reduces measurement artefacts and facilitates determining the concentration of the major biochemical components via a linear least-squares fit of the component spectra to the spectrum of the cells.
Mourant
Judith R
JR
Bioscience Division. MS E535, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA.
Gibson
Rowena R
RR
Johnson
Tamara M
TM
Carpenter
Susan
S
Short
Kurt W
KW
Yamada
Yujiro R
YR
Freyer
James P
JP
D000818:Animals; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000737:chemistry; D002460:Cell Line; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry; D003890:Desiccation; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000737:chemistry*; D008055:Lipids / Q000737:chemistry; D008297:Male; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000737:chemistry; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D012313:RNA / Q000737:chemistry; D051381:Rats; D011916:Rats, Inbred F344; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared / Q000379:methods*; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods; D013059:Spectrum Analysis, Raman / Q000379:methods*; D014407:Tumor Cells, Cultured / Q000737:chemistry; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
D008055:Lipids; D011506:Proteins; D014867:Water; D012313:RNA; D004247:DNA