In order to investigate inflammation, tumors or stem cells, medical practitioners analyze living cells. Non-invasive optical procedures such as Raman spectroscopy accelerate this procedure. Researchers have now developed it to industrial scale.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB in Stuttgart can now analyze living cells quickly and accurately with the help of Raman spectroscopy. The non-invasive optical procedure, which recognizes the molecular fingerprint of different materials, has primarily been employed in quality control for medications and pharmaceutical substances. Now biologists and biomedical researchers can also use this technology thanks to the research work at IGB. The technology is suited to investigating living cells without invasive techniques or altering them with dyes. In order to characterize stem cells or identify changes to tissues that are caused by tumors, inflammations, fungi, or bacteria, it is now sufficient to determine the individual cells' Raman spectrum -- a specialized energy spectrum having particular analytical capability,

"Under joint projects with universities, industrial partners, and the State of Baden-Wrttemberg, IGB has developed comprehensive know-how in this area over the last years and has advanced the technology from use in pure research to industrial implementation. We can now investigate not just individual cells in this manner, but entire tissue structures and organs. Next we want to further refine the technology and develop more applications," says Prof. Katja Schenke-Layland from IGB.

The unmistakable Raman spectrum

Cell biologists at IGB use a specially developed Raman spectroscope jointly designed and built with physicists at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques IPM in Freiburg, Germany. The device is compact and can be conveniently used to investigate a wide range of scientific problems. The scientists are accumulating the spectra they have recorded into a database. "Each cell has a unique, unmistakable Raman spectrum. Doctors are able to compare the sample from their patients' cells with our data base and complete the diagnosis more quickly," says Schenke-Layland.

The technology is already being employed on a practical basis by industrial partners. The scientists are working at present on a rapid test for cancer diagnosis. "Doctors using mobile Raman spectroscopes during an operation could unambiguously say whether the patient has cancer or not simply by comparing the cell sample with the data base," according to Schenke-Layland.

Cancer diagnoses are still complicated and prolonged. After excising the tissue for biopsy, it first must be prepared for further analysis -- for example by suitably sectioning or dying it to identify biomarkers. "But this always requires intervention in the specimen and manipulating it in some way," according to Schenke-Layland.

The specimen is then transferred to a pathologist who analyses whether the tissue contains malignant or benign cells. This method is error prone and can lead to the specimen being unusable for other tests in the end. "Human error is reduced by a software-based comparison with our data base," according to Schenke-Layland.

Employment in cancer diagnostics and regenerative medicine

There are numerous additional applications for this non-invasive optical technology -- especially in regenerative medicine. Artificially grown tissue may replace diseased cells in patients and thereby help the tissue to heal. To accomplish this, tissue-specific cells from bone marrow, for instance, must be removed and the stem cells extracted. Bone marrow is made up of highly diverse cells and it is complicated to differentiate the adult stem cells from the ordinary tissue cells. In addition, the stem cells must be 100% correctly identified and separated. If this does not happen and other types of cells are cultured into the implant, the body may not react as hoped, causing implant rejection or tumor formation.

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Analyzing living cells quickly, accurately

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The capacity to reprogram adult patient cells into pluripotent, embryonic-like, stem cells by nuclear transfer has been reported as a breakthrough by scientists from the US and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The work, described in the journal Nature, was accomplished by researchers from the New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute and Columbia University and by Nissim Benvenisty, the Herbert Cohn professor of Cancer Research and director of the Stem Cell Unit at the Institute of Life Sciences at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and his graduate student Ido Sagi. The latter assisted in the characterization of the pluripotent nature of these cells.

Pluripotency means the ability of stem cells to develop into all the cells of our body, including those in the brain, heart, liver and blood. In 2012, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded for two discoveries showing that mature (differentiated) cells can be converted into pluripotent, embryonic-like cells, either by forced expression of genetic factors or by transfer of cell nuclei into female eggs, in a process called "reprogramming."

However, the actual ability to reprogram cells from humans by nuclear transfer had only been accomplished until now by using fetal cells for this purpose, until this latest work involving reprogramming of adult patient cells demonstrated by the researchers from the US and the Hebrew University, as described in the new Nature article.

Future research should allow further characterization of these novel, pluripotent cell types and their comparison to other stem cells. "Human pluripotent stem cells generated from adult cells may change the face of medicine," says Prof. Benvenisty, leading to totally new, personalized genetic therapy involving the reprograming of a patient's own cells to achieve cell replacement and healing.

Explore further: Soft substrates may promote the production of induced pluripotent stem cells

More information: "Human oocytes reprogram adult somatic nuclei of a type 1 diabetic to diploid pluripotent stem cells." Mitsutoshi Yamada, et al. Nature (2014) DOI: 10.1038/nature13287. Received 04 February 2014 Accepted 27 March 2014 Published online 28 April 2014

Converting adult cells into stem cells that can develop into other types of specialized cells is one of the most active areas of medical research, holding great promise for the treatment of disease and repair ...

For the first time, US researchers have cloned embryonic stem cells from adult cells, a breakthrough on the path towards helping doctors treat a host of diseases. ...

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Nuclear transfer to reprogram adult patient cells into stem cells demonstrated

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New York, May 4 : Men struggling with infertility could breathe a sigh of relief as scientists have now successfully coaxed stem cells made from the skin cells of infertile men into producing sperm cell precursors that could eventually lead to healthy sperm production.

"Our studies suggest that the use of stem cells can serve as a starting material for diagnosing germ cell defects and potentially generating germ cells," said Renee Reijo Pera from Montana State University, US.

Germ cells are specialised cells involved in reproduction.

"It might even be possible to transplant stem-cell-derived germ cells directly into the testes of men with problems producing sperm," she added.

In their research, following transplantation into the testes of mice, pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) produced sperm precursors.

The findings could also help explain a genetic cause of male infertility and offer a window into basic sperm biology.

The researchers looked to infertile but otherwise normal men with deletions encompassing three Y chromosome azoospermia factor (AZF) regions, which are associated with the production of few or no sperm.

They found that iPSCs derived from AZF-deleted cells were compromised in their ability to form sperm in a dish.

But when those cells were transplanted into the testes of mice, they produced germ-cell-like cells (though significantly fewer than iPSCs derived from people without the AZF deletion do).

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Stem cells to power your sperm