Cellular processes are intrinsically complex and dynamic, in which a myriad of cellular components including nucleic acids, proteins, membranes, and organelles are involved and undergo spatiotemporal changes. Label-free Raman imaging has proven powerful for studying such dynamic behaviors in vivo and at the molecular level. To construct Raman images, univariate data analysis has been commonly employed, but it cannot be free from uncertainties due to severely overlapped spectral information. Here, we demonstrate multivariate curve resolution analysis for time-lapse Raman imaging of a single dividing yeast cell. A four-dimensional (spectral variable, spatial positions in the two-dimensional image plane, and time sequence) Raman data "hypercube" is unfolded to a two-way array and then analyzed globally using multivariate curve resolution. The multivariate Raman imaging thus accomplished successfully disentangles dynamic changes of both concentrations and distributions of major cellular components (lipids, proteins, and polysaccharides) during the cell cycle of the yeast cell. The results show a drastic decrease in the amount of lipids by ~50% after cell division and uncover a protein-associated component that has not been detected with previous univariate approaches.

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The ability to observe samples qualitatively at the microscopic scale has greatly enhanced our understanding of the physical and biological world throughout the 400 year history of microscopic imaging, but there are relatively few techniques that can truly claim the ability to quantify the local concentration and composition of a sample. We review coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) as a quantitative, chemically specific, and label-free microscopy. We discuss the complicating influence of the nonresonant response on the CARS signal and the various experimental and mathematical approaches that can be adopted to extract quantitative information from CARS. We also review the uses to which CARS has been employed as a quantitative microscopy to solve challenges in material and biological science.

Abstract. Label-free Raman microspectroscopy combined with a multivariate curve resolution (MCR) analysis can be a powerful tool for studying a wide range of biomedical molecular systems. The MCR with the alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) technique, which retrieves the pure component spectra from complicatedly overlapped spectra, has been successfully applied to in vivo and molecular-level analysis of living cells. The principles of the MCR-ALS analysis are reviewed with a model system of titanium oxide crystal polymorphs, followed by two examples of in vivo Raman imaging studies of living yeast cells, fission yeast, and budding yeast. Due to the non-negative matrix factorization algorithm used in the MCR-ALS analysis, the spectral information derived from this technique is just ready for physical and/or chemical interpretations. The corresponding concentration profiles provide the molecular component distribution images (MCDIs) that are vitally important for elucidating life at the molecular level, as stated by Schroedinger in his famous book, "What is life?" Without any a priori knowledge about spectral profiles, timeand space-resolved Raman measurements of a dividing fission yeast cell with the MCR-ALS elucidate the dynamic changes of major cellular components (lipids, proteins, and polysaccharides) during the cell cycle. The MCR-ALS technique also resolves broadly overlapped OH stretch Raman bands of water, clearly indicating the existence of organelle-specific water structures in a living budding yeast cell.

We have developed ultrabroadband multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microspectroscopy using a coherent supercontinuum in the near-infrared region generated from a photonic crystal fiber. Owing to the ultrabroadband Stokes radiation obtained from the supercontinuum, multiple vibrational modes can be excited simultaneously in the wave-number range of more than 2500cm−1. A CARS imaging of a lipid vesicle is demonstrated with a high vibrational contrast.

Supercontinuum-based multiplex coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microspectroscopy has been applied to vibrational imaging of a living fission yeast cell. We have successfully extracted only a vibrationally resonant CARS image from a characteristic spectral profile in the C-H stretching vibrational region. Using our simple but sensitive analysis, the vibrational contrast is significantly improved in comparison with a CARS imaging at a fixed Raman shift. The CARS image of a living yeast cell indicates several areas at which the signal is remarkably strong. They are considered to arise from mitochondria.

International audienceThis work was supported by the SENTAN project (Program-S) of the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). H. Kano gratefully acknowledges financial support from the Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO) program of JST. The authors thank C. Onogi for providing the spontaneous Raman spectrum of yeast mitochondria, Leukos and Horus Laser companies for technical support, and Dr. F. Omura and H. Yomo (Suntory Co., Ltd.) for providing us with the yeast sample. We gratefully acknowledge J. Ukon (HORIBA, Ltd.) for assisting in the collaboration between the Japanese and French groups

Water is still mysterious despite intensive and extensive studies over the years. Anomalous behavior of water as a liquid is yet to be fully comprehended. Here we show that the most generally known anomaly of water, the density maximum anomaly, is well accounted for by the formation of nanometer-size ice crystallite at low temperatures. We show spectroscopically that, in cold and super-cooled water, this nanometer-size ice crystallite is formed and coexists with the other two forms of water. Multivariate hyperspectral analysis of 140 temperature dependent Raman spectra in the range of −23∼45 °C determines the three distinct vibrational spectra of the three forms of water and their fractions at different temperatures. Simulation based on the determined fractions successfully reproduces the temperature dependence of density with a maximum at the right temperature. The mystery of the density maximum of water has thus been given an unequivocal solution. The nanometer-size ice crystallite might well be called “nano-ice”.