Demonstration of the Protein Involvement in Cell Electropermeabilization using Confocal Raman Microspectroscopy

Confocal Raman microspectroscopy was used to study the interaction between pulsed electric fields and live cells from a molecular point of view in a non-invasive and label-free manner. Raman signatures of live human adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells exposed or not to pulsed electric fields (8 pulses, 1 000 V/cm, 100 μs, 1 Hz) were acquired at two cellular locations (nucleus and cytoplasm) and two spectral bands (600–1 800 cm(−1) and 2 800–3 100 cm(−1)). Vibrational modes of proteins (phenylalanine and amide I) and lipids were found to be modified by the electropermeabilization process with a statistically significant difference. The relative magnitude of four phenylalanine peaks decreased in the spectra of the pulsed group. On the contrary, the relative magnitude of the amide I band at 1658 cm(−1) increased by 40% when comparing pulsed and control group. No difference was found between the control and the pulsed group in the high wavenumber spectral band. Our results reveal the modification of proteins in living cells exposed to pulsed electric fields by means of confocal Raman microspectroscopy.