Glyoxal induced apoptosis studied by near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman scattering

We report on the capabilities of near-infrared surface-enhanced Raman scattering(SERS) by introducing 60 nm gold nanoparticles into live human osteosarcoma cells to obtain detailed chemical information with a high spatial resolution from these cells. A comparative study between viable and glyoxal induced apoptotic cells indicates that most of the gold nanoparticles enter the living cell reside in the cytoplasm and around the nucleus, whereas apoptotic cell shows relatively uniform distribution of gold nanoparticles and interestingly, DNA fragments can be easily found throughout the cell including the cell surface. The ability to acquire very sensitive SERS inside single cells indicates the potential of this technique as a useful tool in biomedicine.