Synchrotron- and focal plane array-based Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy differentiates the basalis and functionalis epithelial endometrial regions and identifies putative stem cell regions of human endometrial glands.

The cyclical process of regeneration of the endometrium suggests that it may contain a cell population that can provide daughter cells with high proliferative potential. These cell lineages are clinically significant as they may represent clonogenic cells that may also be involved in tumourigenesis as well as endometriotic lesion development. To determine whether the putative stem cell location within human uterine tissue can be derived using vibrational spectroscopy techniques, normal endometrial tissue was interrogated by two spectroscopic techniques. Paraffin-embedded uterine tissues containing endometrial glands were sectioned to 10-µm-thick parallel tissue sections and were floated onto BaF2 slides for synchrotron radiation-based Fourier-transform infrared (SR-FTIR) microspectroscopy and globar focal plane array-based FTIR spectroscopy. Different spectral characteristics were identified depending on the location of the glands examined. The resulting infrared spectra were subjected to multivariate analysis to determine associated biophysical differences along the length of longitudinal and crosscut gland sections. Comparison of the epithelial cellular layer of transverse gland sections revealed alterations indicating the presence of putative transient-amplifying-like cells in the basalis and mitotic cells in the functionalis. SR-FTIR microspectroscopy of the base of the endometrial glands identified the location where putative stem cells may reside at the same time pointing towards νsPO2- in DNA and RNA, nucleic acids and amide I and II vibrations as major discriminating factors. This study supports the view that vibration spectroscopy technologies are a powerful adjunct to our understanding of the stem cell biology of endometrial tissue. Graphical abstract ᅟ.

The role of T-cells in neurobehavioural development: Insights from the immunodeficient nude mice.

Mice homozygous for the nude mutation (Foxn1nu) are hairless and exhibit congenital dysgenesis of the thymic epithelium, resulting in a primary immunodeficiency of mature T-cells, and have been used for decades in research with tumour grafts. Early studies have already demonstrated social behaviour impairments and central nervous system (CNS) alterations in these animals, but did not address the complex interplay between CNS, immune system and behavioural alterations. Here we investigate the impact of T-cell immunodeficiency on behaviours relevant to the study of neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders. Moreover, we aimed to characterise in a multidisciplinary manner the alterations related to those findings, through evaluation of the excitatory/inhibitory synaptic proteins, cytokines expression and biological spectrum signature of different biomolecules in nude mice CNS. We demonstrate that BALB/c nude mice display sociability impairments, a complex pattern of repetitive behaviours and higher sensitivity to thermal nociception. These animals also have a reduced IFN-γ gene expression in the prefrontal cortex and an absence of T-cells in meningeal tissue, both known modulators of social behaviour. Furthermore, excitatory synaptic protein PSD-95 immunoreactivity was also reduced in the prefrontal cortex, suggesting an intricate involvement of social behaviour related mechanisms. Lastly, employing biospectroscopy analysis, we have demonstrated that BALB/c nude mice have a different CNS spectrochemical signature compared to their heterozygous littermates. Altogether, our results show a comprehensive behavioural analysis of BALB/c nude mice and potential neuroimmunological influences involved with the observed alterations.

Raman Spectroscopy to Diagnose Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia with Lewy Bodies in Blood.

Accurate identification of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still of major clinical importance considering the current lack of noninvasive and low-cost diagnostic approaches. Detection of early stage AD is particularly desirable as it would allow early intervention or recruitment of patients into clinical trials. There is also an unmet need for discrimination of AD from dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), as many cases of the latter are misdiagnosed as AD. Biomarkers based on a simple blood test would be useful in research and clinical practice. Raman spectroscopy has been implemented to analyze blood plasma of a cohort that consisted of early stage AD, late-stage AD, DLB, and healthy controls. Classification algorithms achieved high accuracy for the different groups: early stage AD vs healthy with 84% sensitivity, 86% specificity; late-stage AD vs healthy with 84% sensitivity, 77% specificity; DLB vs healthy with 83% sensitivity, 87% specificity; early-stage AD vs DLB with 81% sensitivity, 88% specificity; late-stage AD vs DLB with 90% sensitivity, 93% specificity; and lastly, early-stage AD vs late-stage AD 66% sensitivity and 83% specificity. G-score values were also estimated between 74% and 91%, demonstrating that the overall performance of the classification model was satisfactory. The wavenumbers responsible for differentiation were assigned to important biomolecules, which can serve as a panel of biomarkers. These results suggest a cost-effective, blood-based test for neurodegeneration in dementias.

An imaging dataset of cervical cells using scanning near-field optical microscopy coupled to an infrared free electron laser.

Using a scanning near-field optical microscope coupled to an infrared free electron laser (SNOM-IR-FEL) in low-resolution transmission mode, we collected chemical data from whole cervical cells obtained from 5 pre-menopausal, non-pregnant women of reproductive age, and cytologically classified as normal or with different grades of cervical cell dyskaryosis. Imaging data are complemented by demography. All samples were collected before any treatment. Spectra were also collected using attenuated total reflection, Fourier-transform (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, to investigate the differences between the two techniques. Results of this pilot study suggests SNOM-IR-FEL may be able to distinguish cervical abnormalities based upon changes in the chemical profiles for each grade of dyskaryosis at designated wavelengths associated with DNA, Amide I/II, and lipids. The novel data sets are the first collected using SNOM-IR-FEL in transmission mode at the ALICE facility (UK), and obtained using whole cells as opposed to tissue sections, thus providing an 'intact' chemical profile. These data sets are suited to complementing future work on image analysis, and/or applying the newly developed algorithm to other datasets collected using the SNOM-IR-FEL approach.

Tracking the Impact of Excisional Cervical Treatment on the Cervix using Biospectroscopy.

Local excisional treatment for cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN) is linked to significant adverse sequelae including preterm birth, with cone depth and radicality of treatment correlating to the frequency and severity of adverse events. Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy can detect underlying cervical disease more accurately than conventional cytology. The chemical profile of cells pre- and post-treatment may differ as a result of altered biochemical processes due to excision, or treatment of the disease. Since pre-treatment cervical length varies amongst women, the percentage of cervix excised may correlate more accurately to risk than absolute dimensions. We show that treatment for CIN significantly alters the biochemistry of the cervix, compared with women who have not had treatment; this is due to the removal of cervical tissue rather than the removal of the disease. However, the spectra do not seem to correlate to the cone depth or proportion of cervical length excised. Future research should aim to explore the impact of treatment in a larger cohort.

Imaging cervical cytology with scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) coupled with an IR-FEL.

Cervical cancer remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality among women, especially in the developing world. Increased synthesis of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids is a pre-condition for the rapid proliferation of cancer cells. We show that scanning near-field optical microscopy, in combination with an infrared free electron laser (SNOM-IR-FEL), is able to distinguish between normal and squamous low-grade and high-grade dyskaryosis, and between normal and mixed squamous/glandular pre-invasive and adenocarcinoma cervical lesions, at designated wavelengths associated with DNA, Amide I/II and lipids. These findings evidence the promise of the SNOM-IR-FEL technique in obtaining chemical information relevant to the detection of cervical cell abnormalities and cancer diagnosis at spatial resolutions below the diffraction limit (≥0.2 µm). We compare these results with analyses following attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy; although this latter approach has been demonstrated to detect underlying cervical atypia missed by conventional cytology, it is limited by a spatial resolution of ~3 µm to 30 µm due to the optical diffraction limit.