In the confocal Raman spectra of skin dermis, the band area in the spectral region of proline and hydroxyproline varies according to the age and health condition of the volunteers, classified as healthy young women, healthy elderly women, and diabetic elderly women. Another observation refers to the intensity variation and negative Raman shift of the amide I band. To understand these effects, we adopted a model system using the DFT/B3LYP:3-21G procedure, considering the amino acid chain formed by glycine, hydroxyproline, proline, and alanine, which interacts with two and six water molecules. Through these systems, polarizability variations were analyzed to correlate its values with the observed Raman intensities of the three groups of volunteers and to assign the vibrational spectra of the skin dermis. As a way to correlate other experimental trends, we propose a model of chemical reaction of water interchange between the bonding amino acids, in which water molecules are attached with glucose by hydrogen bonds. The theoretical results are in accordance with the observed experimental trends.
KEYWORDS: Statistical analysis, Skin, Raman spectroscopy, Confocal microscopy, In vivo imaging, Biological research, Principal component analysis, Data analysis, Spectroscopy, Analytical research
The analysis of biological systems by spectroscopic techniques involves the evaluation of hundreds to thousands of variables. Hence, different statistical approaches are used to elucidate regions that discriminate classes of samples and to propose new vibrational markers for explaining various phenomena like disease monitoring, mechanisms of action of drugs, food, and so on. However, the technical statistics are not always widely discussed in applied sciences. In this context, this work presents a detailed discussion including the various steps necessary for proper statistical analysis. It includes univariate parametric and nonparametric tests, as well as multivariate unsupervised and supervised approaches. The main objective of this study is to promote proper understanding of the application of various statistical tools in these spectroscopic methods used for the analysis of biological samples. The discussion of these methods is performed on a set of in vivo confocal Raman spectra of human skin analysis that aims to identify skin aging markers. In the Appendix, a complete routine of data analysis is executed in a free software that can be used by the scientific community involved in these studies.
In vivo confocal Raman spectroscopy is a powerful non-invasive technique able to analyse the skin constituents. This technique was applied to transdermal perfusion studies of the vitamin A derivative in human skin. The composition of the stratum corneum (lipid bilayer) is decisive for the affinity and transport of the vitamin through skin. The vitamin A is significantly absorbed by human skin when applied with water in oil emulsion or hydro-alcoholic gel. The purpose of this study is to elucidate the behaviour of vitamin A derivative into human skin without the presence of enhancers. The results showed that the intensity band of the derivative (around 1600 cm-1), which represents the -C=O vibrational mode, was detected in different stratum corneum depths (up to 20 μm). This Raman peak of vitamin A derivative has non-coincident band with the Raman spectra of the skin epidermis, demonstrating that compound penetrated in forearm skin.
Schwannoma are rare benign neural neoplasia. The clinical diagnosis could be improved if novel optical techniques are performed. Among these techniques, FT-IR is one of the currently techniques which has been applied for samples discrimination using biochemical information with minimum sample preparation. In this work, we report a case of a schwannoma in the cervical region. A histological examination described a benign process. An immunohistochemically examination demonstrated positivity to anti-S100 protein antibody, indicating a diagnosis of schwannoma. The aim of this analysis was to characterize FT-IR spectrum of the neoplastic and normal tissue in the fingerprint (1000-1800 cm-1) and high wavenumber region (2800-3600 cm-1). The IR spectra were collect from tumor tissue and normal nerve samples by a FT-IR spectrophotometer (Spotlight Perkin Elmer 400, USA) with 64 scans, and resolution of 4 cm−1. A total of twenty spectra were recorded (10 from schwannoma and 10 from nerve). Multivariate Analysis was used to classify the data. Through average and standard deviation analysis we observed that the main spectral change occurs at ≈1600 cm-1 (amide I) and ≈1400 cm-1 (amide III) in the fingerprint region, and in CH2/CH3 protein-lipids and OH-water vibrations for the high wavenumber region. In conclusion, FT-IR could be used as a technique for schwannoma analysis helping to establish specific diagnostic.
The aging process involves the reduction in the production of the major components of skin tissue. During intrinsic aging and photoaging processes, in dermis of human skin, fibroblasts become senescent and have decreased activity, which produce low levels of collagen. Moreover, there is accumulation of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs have incidence in the progression of age-related diseases, principally in diabetes mellitus and in Alzheimer's diseases. AGEs causes intracellular damage and/or apoptosis leading to an increase of the free radicals, generating a crosslink with skin proteins and oxidative stress. The aim of this study is to detect AGEs markers on human skin by in vivo Confocal Raman spectroscopy. Spectra were obtained by using a Rivers Diagnostic System, 785 nm laser excitation and a CCD detector from the skin surface down to 120 μm depth. We analyzed the confocal Raman spectra of the skin dermis of 30 women volunteers divided into 3 groups: 10 volunteers with diabetes mellitus type II, 65–80 years old (DEW); 10 young healthy women, 20–33 years old (HYW); and 10 elderly healthy women, 65–80 years old (HEW). Pentosidine and glucosepane were the principally identified AGEs in the hydroxyproline and proline Raman spectral region (1000–800 cm–1), in the 1.260–1.320 cm–1 region assignable to alpha-helical amide III modes, and in the Amide I region. Pentosidine and glucosepane calculated vibrational spectra were performed through Density Functional Theory using the B3LYP functional with 3-21G basis set. Difference between the Raman spectra of diabetic elderly women and healthy young women, and between healthy elderly women and healthy young women were also obtained with the purpose of identifying AGEs Raman bands markers. AGEs peaks and collagen changes have been identified and used to quantify the glycation process in human skin.
The schwannomas is a tumour of the tissue that covers nerves, called the nerve sheath. Schwannomas are often benign tumors of the Schwan cells, which are the principal glia of the peripheral nervous system (PNS). Preoperative diagnosis of this lesion usually is difficult, therefore, new techniques are being studied as pre surgical evaluation. Among these, Raman spectroscopy, that enables the biochemical identification of the tissue analyzed by their optical properties, may be used as a tool for schwannomas diagnosis. The aim of this study was to discriminate between normal nervous tissue and schwannoma through the confocal Raman spectroscopy and Raman optical fiber-based techniques combined with immunohistochemical analysis. Twenty spectra were analyzed from a normal nerve tissue sample (10) and schwannoma (10) by Holospec f / 1.8 (Kayser Optical Systems) coupled to an optical fiber with a 785nm laser line source. The data were pre-processed and vector normalized. The average analysis and standard deviation was performed associated with cluster analysis. AML, 1A4, CD34, Desmin and S-100 protein markers were used for immunohistochemical analysis. Immunohistochemical analysis was positive only for protein S-100 marker which confirmed the neural schwanomma originality. The immunohistochemistry analysis were important to determine the source of the injury, whereas Raman spectroscopy were able to differentiated tissues types indicating important biochemical changes between normal and benign neoplasia.
Accumulation of AGEs [Advanced Glycation End – products] occurs slowly during the human aging process. However, its formation is accelerated in the presence of diabetes mellitus. In this paper, we perform a noninvasive analysis of glycation effect on human skin by in vivo confocal Raman spectroscopy. This technique uses a laser of 785 nm as excitation source and, by the inelastic scattering of light, it is possible to obtain information about the biochemical composition of the skin. Our aim in this work was to characterize the aging process resulting from the glycation process in a group of 10 Health Elderly Women (HEW) and 10 Diabetic Elderly Women (DEW). The Raman data were collected from the dermis at a depth of 70-130 microns. Through the theory of functional density (DFT) the bands positions of hydroxyproline, proline and AGEs (pentosidine and glucosepane) were calculated by using Gaussian 0.9 software. A molecular interpretation of changes in type I collagen was performed by the changes in the vibrational modes of the proline (P) and hydroxyproline (HP). The data analysis shows that the aging effects caused by glycation of proteins degrades type I collagen differently and leads to accelerated aging process.
Biochemical composition of the skin changes in each layer and, therefore, the skin spectral profile vary with the depth. In this work, in vivo Confocal Raman spectroscopy studies were performed at different skin regions and depth profile (from the surface down to 10 μm) of the stratum corneum, to verify the variability and reproducibility of the intra- and interindividual Raman data. The Raman spectra were collected from seven healthy female study participants using a confocal Raman system from Rivers Diagnostic, with 785 nm excitation line and a CCD detector. Measurements were performed in the volar forearm region, at three different points at different depth, with the step of 2 μm. For each depth point, three spectra were acquired. Data analysis included the descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation and residual) and Pearson's correlation coefficient calculation. Our results show that inter-individual variability is higher than intraindividual variability, and variability inside the SC is higher than on the skin surface. In all these cases we obtained r values, higher than 0.94, which correspond to high correlation between Raman spectra. It reinforces the possibility of the data reproducibility and direct comparison of in vivo results obtained with different study participants of the same age group and phototype.
Raman spectroscopy can provide a molecular-level signature of the biochemical composition and structure of cells with excellent spatial resolution and could be useful to monitor changes in composition for early stage and non-invasive cancer diagnosis, both ex-vivo and in vivo. In particular, the fingerprint spectral region (400–1,800 cm-1) has been shown to be very promising for optical biopsy purposes. However, limitations to discrimination of dysplastic and inflammatory processes based on the fingerprint region still persist. In addition, the Raman spectral signal of dysplastic cells is one important source of misdiagnosis of normal versus pathological tissues. The high wavenumber region (2,800–3,600 cm-1) provides more specific information based on N-H, O-H and C-H vibrations and can be used to identify the subtle changes which could be important for discrimination of samples. In this study, we demonstrate the potential of the highwavenumber spectral region by collecting Raman spectra of nucleoli, nucleus and cytoplasm from oral epithelial cancer (SCC-4) and dysplastic (DOK) cell lines and from normal oral epithelial primary cells, in vitro, which were then analyzed by area under the curve as a method to discriminate the spectra. In this region, we will show the discriminatory potential of the CH vibrational modes of nucleic acids, proteins and lipids. This technique demonstrated more efficient discrimination than the fingerprint region when we compared the cell cultures.
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