Raman spectrum as a fingerprint for the cell state

Abstract

Distinguishing the cell state can be realized by various cell biological techniques, however, these techniques usually require labeling or disruption of cells. Raman spectrum from cell contains various information regarding the cell's ingredient such as molecular species, their amounts and locations. Because these information reflect the state of the cell, Raman spectrum from the cell can be used for predicting the cell state. Here we describe the concept of the use of Raman spectrum as a fingerprint of the cell state, and demonstrate the capability of the method by discriminating the cell type and identifying the differentiation status of cell lines by Raman spectrum from these cells. Because Raman measurement can be performed in non-invasive manner without labeling at single cell resolution, this method can be applied to various applications.