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Chapter 11
Structural and Spatial Analysis of Carotenoids
in a Single Cell Monitored by Raman
Spectroscopy
Agnieszka Kaczor and Marta Pilarczyk
m. Baranska (ed.), Optical Spectroscopy and Computational Methods in Biology and
Medicine, Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics 14,
doI 10.1007/978-94-007-7832-0_11, © Springer Science+Business media dordrecht 2014
A. Kaczor () · m. Pilarczyk
Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian university, Ingardena 3, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
e-mail: kaczor@chemia.uj.edu.pl
A. Kaczor
Jagiellonian Centre of Experimental therapeutics (JCEt), Jagiellonian university,
Bobrzynskiego 14, 30-348 Krakow, Poland
Abstract Carotenoids are particularly convenient subjects to study by means of
Raman spectroscopy due to very high Raman scattering cross-section associated
with their chain vibrations. Raman studies of carotenoids in single cells have a
variety of applications starting from monitoring of growth and morphogenesis of
unicellular algae and ending with differentiation of cancerous versus non-cancerous
tissues in humans. Examples illustrating the potential of Raman spectroscopy to
investigate carotenoids structure and distribution with a particular impact on studies
using chemometric and computational methods as a tool to analyze experimental
data are reviewed in this chapter.
Keywords Carotenoids • Raman • Imaging • Chemometrics • Quantum-chemical
calculations • unicellular algae
11.1 Introduction
Raman spectroscopy is a particularly convenient method to study carotenoids due
to the long chain of alternating double and single bonds in their structures, responsible for unusually high Raman scattering cross-section associated with the chain
vibrations. Additionally, upon excitation in the visible absorption range, the resonance effect is observed for carotenoids resulting in an enhancement factor of about
five orders of magnitude compared to nonresonant conditions [1]. It makes Raman
spectroscopy suitable technique to study carotenoids in low-concentration conditions such as human skin [2], eye [3], human cells [4–6] or immune system [7–10].
Such biochemical studies gain significantly if the pigment localization in a cell or
Chapter 11
Structural and Spatial Analysis of Carotenoids
in a Single Cell Monitored by Raman
Spectroscopy
Agnieszka Kaczor and Marta Pilarczyk
m. Baranska (ed.), Optical Spectroscopy and Computational Methods in Biology and
Medicine, Challenges and Advances in Computational Chemistry and Physics 14,
doI 10.1007/978-94-007-7832-0_11, © Springer Science+Business media dordrecht 2014
A. Kaczor () · m. Pilarczyk
Faculty of Chemistry, Jagiellonian university, Ingardena 3, 30-060 Krakow, Poland
e-mail: kaczor@chemia.uj.edu.pl
A. Kaczor
Jagiellonian Centre of Experimental therapeutics (JCEt), Jagiellonian university,
Bobrzynskiego 14, 30-348 Krakow, Poland
Abstract Carotenoids are particularly convenient subjects to study by means of
Raman spectroscopy due to very high Raman scattering cross-section associated
with their chain vibrations. Raman studies of carotenoids in single cells have a
variety of applications starting from monitoring of growth and morphogenesis of
unicellular algae and ending with differentiation of cancerous versus non-cancerous
tissues in humans. Examples illustrating the potential of Raman spectroscopy to
investigate carotenoids structure and distribution with a particular impact on studies
using chemometric and computational methods as a tool to analyze experimental
data are reviewed in this chapter.
Keywords Carotenoids • Raman • Imaging • Chemometrics • Quantum-chemical
calculations • unicellular algae
11.1 Introduction
Raman spectroscopy is a particularly convenient method to study carotenoids due
to the long chain of alternating double and single bonds in their structures, responsible for unusually high Raman scattering cross-section associated with the chain
vibrations. Additionally, upon excitation in the visible absorption range, the resonance effect is observed for carotenoids resulting in an enhancement factor of about
five orders of magnitude compared to nonresonant conditions [1]. It makes Raman
spectroscopy suitable technique to study carotenoids in low-concentration conditions such as human skin [2], eye [3], human cells [4–6] or immune system [7–10].
Such biochemical studies gain significantly if the pigment localization in a cell or