Application of FTIR Imaging on Healthy (Donor Age Effect) and Disease (Beta Thalassemia Major) States

Abstract

Recent researches have displayed the significant role of stem cells in tissue renewal and homeostasis with their unique capacity to develope different cell types. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) which are non-hematopoietic, stromal cells found primarily in bone marrow (BM) in addition to many human tissues. Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) can differentiate into a variety of non-hematopoietic tissues and maintain healthy hematopoiesis by providing supportive cellular microenvironment in BM. Stem cell studies hold enormous potential for development of new therapies. Therefore; investigation of stem cells in normal developmental and physiological states as well as in pathological conditions may lead to understanding of disease pathogenesis and development of new cellular therapies. The present study focused on the investigation of donor age effect on healthy human BM-MSCs and the characterization of beta thalassemia major (β-TM) disease by using a novel, rapid and non-destructive technique, Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy (FTIRM). Aging process of healthy BM-MSCs is significant because of their important role in tissue regeneration and repairment. Characterization of β-TM-induced structural and functional variations in BM-MSCs important because it may provide basic understanding of hematopoetic stem cell (HSC)-MSC interactions in such a pathological bone marrow microenvironment. In this scope, firstly, BM-MSCs were characterized in terms of their morphological, immunophenotypical and differentiation properties. Then, variation in the macromolecular concentrations in between studied groups was obtained visually. The spectral results reflected that there were significant changes in the concentrations of lipids, proteins, glycogen and nucleic acids in children and adolescent group BM-MSCs when compared with the infants, early and mid adults. In β-TM disease study, the differences in chemical maps belonging to different macromolecules clearly indicated the succesfull differentiation of healthy control, pre- and post-transplant BM-MSCs by FTIRM.