Mammalian cell and tissue imaging using Raman and coherent Raman microscopy

Abstract

Direct imaging of metabolism in cells or multicellular organisms is important for understanding many biological processes. Raman scattering (RS) microscopy, particularly, coherent Raman scattering (CRS) such as coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) and stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), has emerged as a powerful platform for cellular imaging due to its high chemical selectivity, sensitivity, and imaging speed. RS microscopy has been extensively used for the identification of subcellular structures, metabolic observation, and phenotypic characterization. Conjugating RS modalities with other techniques such as fluorescence or infrared (IR) spectroscopy, flow cytometry, and RNAsequencing can further extend the applications of RS imaging in microbiology, system biology, neurology, tumor biology and more. Here we overview RS modalities and techniques for mammalian cell and tissue imaging, with a focus on the advances and applications of CARS and SRS microscopy, for a better understanding of the metabolism and dynamics of lipids, protein, glucose, and nucleic acids in mammalian cells and tissues.

Towards Raman-Based Screening of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Type B (B-ALL) Subtypes

“…There are also other limitations in the translation of Raman-based diagnostic of leukemia from the laboratory into the clinic, such as mentioned above difficulties in analyzing the data and relatively slow acquisition times. The development of non-linear Raman methods provides improvements in collection times for conventional Raman spectroscopy and has been shown to significantly reduce acquisition times: coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (CARS) and stimulated Raman spectroscopy (SRS) [56].…”

Dynamic Progress in Technological Advances to Study Lipids in Aging: Challenges and Future Directions

“…Each molecule understudy has its own vibrational spectrum profile, allowing SRS imaging to be chemically specific. Compared with spontaneous Raman spectroscopy, SRS microscopy offers at least 1,000-fold faster acquisition ( Fung and Shi, 2020 ; Shi et al, 2021 ). Moreover, SRS can be used for 3D optical sectioning even in living animals ( Shi et al, 2018 ).…”

Physical and Methodological Perspectives on the Optical Properties of Biological Samples: A Review

“…An example of this phenomenon is when a molecule gains energy when photons from a laser in the visible spectrum are shifted to lower energy. This is also known as normal Stokes-Raman scattering [54]. The absorption of a photon by a molecule excites the electron to an imaginary state where, in the case of Raman scattering, the electron falls to a higher energy level, while in Anti-Stokes-Raman scattering this energy level is lower, as compared to the initial ground-state.…”