Correlation of spectroscopic and biochemical assays post-ionising radiation exposure in human skin cell analogues

Abstract

Raman spectroscopy, as an evaluation of the products of ionising radiation exposure in biological systems, has been utilised mainly in the evaluation of the impact of exposure in tissue, cellular constituents and live animals. It has also been recently demonstrated that Raman spectroscopy can demonstrate key spectroscopic changes in the live cell associated with significant apoptotic and necrotic chemical damage. The present preliminary work utilises Raman spectroscopy at 514.5 nm to evaluate the results of exposure to γ-rays in HaCaT cells from a Co-60 therapy source, in tandem with other biological assays. The results demonstrate that a number of spectral changes may be correlated with changes in the cell also identified in parallel biochemical assays.