Comparison of two methods for noninvasive determination of carotenoids in human and animal skin: Raman spectroscopy versus reflection spectroscopy

Based on compelling in vivo and in vitro studies on human skin, carotenoids are thought to be of great interest as powerful antioxidants acting to prevent free-radical-induced damages, including premature skin ageing and the development of skin diseases such as cancer. Among the available techniques that are suitable for noninvasive determination of carotenoids in human skin, are resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) and reflection spectroscopy (RS). For RS, a LED-based miniaturized spectroscopic system (MSS) was developed for noninvasive measurement of carotenoids in human skin. The optimization and subsequent calibration of the MSS was performed with the use of RRS. A strong correlation between the carotenoid concentration determined by the RS and for the RRS system was achieved for human skin in vivo (R = 0.88) and for bovine udder skin in vitro (R = 0.81).

Fluorescence detection with high time resolution: From optical microscopy to simultaneous force and fluorescence spectroscopy

Picosecond time-resolution fluorescence signal detection over many hours is possible using the time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC) technique. Advanced TCSPC with clock oscillator set by the pulsed laser and data analysis provides a tool to investigate processes in single molecules on time scale from picoseconds to seconds. Optical imaging techniques combined with TCSPC allow one to study the spatial distribution of fluorescence properties in solution and on a surface. Mechanical manipulation of a single macromolecule by means of an atomic-force microscope makes it possible to detect fluorescence signal changes as a function of mechanical conformations of a fluorescent dye attached to a single DNA molecule.

Monitoring dynamic systems with multiparameter fluorescence imaging

A new general strategy based on the use of multiparameter fluorescence detection (MFD) to register and quantitatively analyse fluorescence images is introduced. Multiparameter fluorescence imaging (MFDi) uses pulsed excitation, time-correlated single-photon counting and a special pixel clock to simultaneously monitor the changes in the eight-dimensional fluorescence information (fundamental anisotropy, fluorescence lifetime, fluorescence intensity, time, excitation spectrum, fluorescence spectrum, fluorescence quantum yield, distance between fluorophores) in real time. The three spatial coordinates are also stored. The most statistically efficient techniques known from single-molecule spectroscopy are used to estimate fluorescence parameters of interest for all pixels, not just for the regions of interest. Their statistical significance is judged from a stack of two-dimensional histograms. In this way, specific pixels can be selected for subsequent pixel-based subensemble analysis in order to improve the statistical accuracy of the parameters estimated. MFDi avoids the need for sequential measurements, because the registered data allow one to perform many analysis techniques, such as fluorescence-intensity distribution analysis (FIDA) and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), in an off-line mode. The limitations of FCS for counting molecules and monitoring dynamics are discussed. To demonstrate the ability of our technique, we analysed two systems: (i) interactions of the fluorescent dye Rhodamine 110 inside and outside of a glutathione sepharose bead, and (ii) microtubule dynamics in live yeast cells of Schizosaccharomyces pombe using a fusion protein of Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) with Minichromosome Altered Loss Protein 3 (Mal3), which is involved in the dynamic cycle of polymerising and depolymerising microtubules.