Raman Spectroscopy Follows Time-Dependent Changes in T Lymphocytes Isolated from Spleen of Endotoxemic Mice

T lymphocytes (T cells) are highly specialized members of the adaptive immune system and hold the key to the understanding the hosts' response toward invading pathogen or pathogen-associated molecular patterns such as LPS. In this study, noninvasive Raman spectroscopy is presented as a label-free method to follow LPS-induced changes in splenic T cells during acute and postacute inflammatory phases (1, 4, 10, and 30 d) with a special focus on CD4 and CD8 T cells of endotoxemic C57BL/6 mice. Raman spectral analysis reveals highest chemical differences between CD4 and CD8 T cells originating from the control and LPS-treated mice during acute inflammation, and the differences are visible up to 10 d after the LPS insult. In the postacute phase, CD4 and CD8 T cells from treated and untreated mice could not be differentiated anymore, suggesting that T cells largely regained their original status. In sum, the biological information obtained from Raman spectra agrees with immunological readouts demonstrating that Raman spectroscopy is a well-suited, label-free method for following splenic T cell activation in systemic inflammation from acute to postacute phases. The method can also be applied to directly study tissue sections as is demonstrated for spleen tissue one day after LPS insult.