Optical Trap Combined with Raman Spectroscopy to Probe Red Blood Cell Behaviour in Certain Intravenous Fluids

Systematic studies on a live, individual human red blood cell without any chemical fixation can be realized with the aid of optical tweezers. In the present work, the behavior of human red blood cell in dextrose containing intravenous fluids and blood plasma were investigated and compared using a home-made near-IR Laser Tweezers Raman spectrometer. Significant spectral variations in Raman signatures exist between the RBCs in plasma and dextrose containing intravenous fluids, which mainly comprise of the hemoglobin oxygenation-deoxygenation transition as well as the heme aggregation markers.