Detecting viability transitions of umbilical cord mesenchymal stem cells by Raman micro-spectroscopy

Abstract

Recent research suggests that human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells (hUC-MSCs) can be promising candidates for cell-based therapy. Since large population and high viability are generally required, detecting viability transitions of these cells is crucial for their population expansion and quality control. Here, as a non-invasive method, Raman micro-spectroscopy is applied to examine hUC-MSCs with different viability. Using peak fitting and statistic t-test, the Raman peaks with obvious differences between the cells with high viability (> 90%) and low viability (< 20%) are extracted. It is found that the C=O out of plane bending in thymine at 744 cm-1, symmetric stretching of C–C in lipids at 877 cm-1 and CH deformation in proteins at 1342 cm-1 show the most significant changes (p < 0.001). When the cell viability decreases, the intensities of the former two peaks are both about doubled while that of the latter peak reduces by about 30%. Based on these results, we propose that the viability of hUC-MSCs can be characterized by these three peaks. And their intensity changes can be understood from the model of excessive reactive oxygen species interacting with the bio-macromolecules.

In situ near infrared spectroscopy for analyte‐specific monitoring of glucose and ammonium in streptomyces coelicolor fermentations

“…There are many other reports on the distinct effects of cell viability and cell death detected by Raman spectroscopy [87–89]. In various studies, Raman spectroscopy was employed as a screening tool for chemotherapeutics.…”

Raman microscopy of bladder cancer cells expressing green fluorescent protein

“…First of all, the high percent cell viability levels (93% or more) obtained at each cell passage ensured that the cell populations used in the Raman spectroscopic analysis were free from dead or damaged cells. 24 Second, by using the laser-line collection mode, Raman scatter from a larger collection of individual cells could be obtained, which could be further enhanced if the cells were preconcentrated by centrifugation prior to deposition and analysis. Indeed, our image analyses show that the later approach achieved ∼13 cells∕μm 2 laser areas compared to ∼3 cells∕μm 2 laser areas, if cells grown on a slide had been analyzed.…”

Raman Spectroscopy for Noninvasive Monitoring of Umbilical Cord Mesenchymal Stem Cells Viability Transitions

“…As a label-free method, Raman spectroscopy is increasingly used in the study of stem cells [10,[19][20][21]. In our recently work [36], this technology was used to detect the viability transitions of hUC-MSCs. An encouraging finding was that the most significant Raman spectral variations associated with the cell viability decrease were at 1342, 877, and 744 cm −1 , which implied a great potential for characterizing the cell viability changes.…”