An Analysis of Isolated and Intact RBC Membranes—A Comparison of a Semiquantitative Approach by Means of FTIR, Nano-FTIR, and Raman Spectroscopies

This work presents the potential of vibrational spectroscopy, Vis and NIR Raman spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) in reflection and transmission modes, and nano-FTIR microscopy to study the biochemical alterations in membranes of isolated and intact red blood cells (RBCs). The main goal was to propose the best spectroscopic method which enabled following biochemical alterations in the RBC membranes and then to translate this spectroscopic signature of degradation to in situ analysis of RBCs. Two models corresponding to two distinct cases of RBC membrane conditions were employed, and they were derived from healthy and young mice and mature mice with advanced atherosclerosis. It was shown that each technique provided essential information about biochemical alterations of the isolated membranes as well as membranes in the intact RBCs, which can be used in the development of a rapid and in situ analytical technology. Finally, we proposed that the combination of macro- and nanoprobing implemented in IR spectroscopy provided a wide chemical characterization of the RBC membranes, including alterations in lipid and protein fractions. This study also examined the effect of the sample preparation to determine destructive factors influencing a spectroscopic analysis of isolated membranes and intact RBCs derived from healthy and disease-affected mice.