Detection of hepatic maturation by raman spectroscopy in mesenchymal stem cells undergoing hepatic differentiation

Abstract

Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) are well known to have potential for applications in tissue engineering. In vitro, MSCs are able to differentiate to hepatocyte-like cells. The conventional methods to estimate the maturation of hepatic differentiation need large amount cells, cell fixation and labeling. In this study, the label-free method, Raman spectroscopy has used to real-time monitor the maturation level of hepatic differentiation from MSCs. The results indicated that the intensity of broad band in the range of 2800 cm-1 ∼ 3000 cm-1 reflecting glycogen within lipchromes in the MSCs-derived hepatocyte-like cells exhibited high correlation coefficient during maturation of hepatic differentiation. Furthermore, the principal component analysis of raman spectra (400 cm-1 ∼ 3000 cm-1) indicated the MSCs-derived hepatocyte-like cells were very different from the undifferentiated MSCs and close to the primary murine hepatocytes. In summary, Raman spectroscopy can provide a rapid, non-invasive, real-time and label-free biosensor and reflects the changes of live cell components during hepatic differentiation. Expectedly, these results can accelerate the improvements for clinical diagnosis and applications of stem cell research for tissue engineering.