Determining the gross biochemical composition of cells and tissue with Raman spectrosocpy

The biochemical composition of mammalian cells has been estimated by Raman spectroscopy and the results compared with other biochemical methods. The Raman spectroscopy estimates were performed by fitting measured Raman and infrared spectra of dense cell suspensions to a linear combination of basis components (RNA, DNA, protein, lipid, glycoen). The Raman spectroscopy results are compared to biochemical analyses performed by extraction and quantfication of the biochemical components. Both absolute and relative measurements of biochemical composition are compared. Both the Raman and biochemical results indicate that there are signficant differences in gross biochemical composition dependent on growth stage and tumorigneicity.