Raman Spectroscopy of Human Lens Epithelial Cells Exposed to a Low-Dose Range of Ionizing Radiation

Recent studies indicate that ionizing radiation (IR) induced opacification in the lens of the eye occurs at lower doses (< 2Gy) than past protection guidelines had assumed. Research is currently focused on identifying early signs of the lens degradation that leads to cataract formation, and in developing non-invasive assays capable of detecting low dose exposures to the lens of the eye. Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a non-invasive, vibrational spectroscopic technique based on the inelastic scattering of light by molecular vibrations. It is capable of providing information on the molecular makeup of biological samples that can be used for classification purposes. This work focuses on the application of RS combined with multivariate statistical analysis to detect IR induced changes in vitro within human lens epithelial (HLE) cells exposed to a broad dose-range (0.01-5 Gy). The development of a new Raman microscope which will increase data acquisition throughput is also discussed.