Centre for Sensors, Instruments and Systems Development

Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya

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07/16/2020
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Spectroscopic Evaluation of Red Blood Cells of Thalassemia Patients with Confocal Microscopy: A Pilot Study

Hemoglobinopathies represent the most common single-gene defects in the world and pose a major public health problem, particularly in tropical countries, where they occur with high frequency. Diagnosing hemoglobinopathies can sometimes be difficult due to the coexistence of different causes of anemia, such as thalassemia and iron deficiency, and blood transfusions, among other factors, and requires expensive and complex molecular tests. This work explores the possibility of using spectral confocal microscopy as a diagnostic tool for thalassemia in pediatric patients, a disease caused by mutations in the globin genes that result in changes of the globin chains that form hemoglobin—in pediatric patients. Red blood cells (RBCs) from patients with different syndromes of alpha-thalassemia and iron deficiency (including anemia) as well as healthy (control) subjects were analyzed under a Leica TCS SP8 confocal microscope following different image acquisition protocols. We found that diseased RBCs exhibited autofluorescence when excited at 405 nm and their emission was collected in the spectral range from 425 nm to 790 nm. Three experimental descriptors calculated from the mean emission intensities at 502 nm, 579 nm, 628 nm, and 649 nm allowed us to discriminate between diseased and healthy cells. According to the results obtained, spectral confocal microscopy could serve as a tool in the diagnosis of thalassemia.

The project has been developed in a joint collaboration with researchers from the Hospital de Sant Joan de Déu and CD6.

Keywords: red blood cells; thalassemia; spectroscopy; confocal microscopy; spectral imaging;
autofluorescence

Funding entities: Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO), State Research Agency (AEI) and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).
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