Normal saline-induced deoxygenation of red blood cells probed by optical tweezers combined with the micro-Raman technique

The use of normal saline for washing red blood cells and treating critically ill patients is a regular medical practice in hospital settings. An optical tweezer in combination with Raman spectroscopy is an analytical tool employed for the investigation of single cell dynamics, thus providing molecular fingerprint of the cell by optically trapping the cell at a laser focus. In this study, the impact of normal saline on individual human red blood cell was compared with that of blood plasma using Raman tweezers spectroscopy. Major spectral variations in the marker frequencies at 1209 cm(−1), 1222 cm(−1), 1544 cm(−1), and 1561 cm(−1) of the Raman spectrum of the treated cells imply that the transition of hemoglobin to the deoxygenated state occurs when 0.9% normal saline is used. This may result in serious implications in blood transfusion. The results obtained from the principal component analysis also displayed clear differentiation among the red blood cells diluted in normal saline and those diluted in plasma. In future studies, efforts will be made to correlate the deoxygenation status of red blood cells with various human disorders.