A Bio-Photonics System for Rapid In Vitro Testing of Cells and Ceramics

We present a new bio-photonic method based on Raman spectroscopy able to characterize living cells in in-vitro cultures. The main advantages of this technology are: no labels or other contrast enhancers are required; provides real-time analysis; cells can be maintained in physiological conditions during the measurements; no cell-damage is induced during the measurements; it is rich in information about the biochemical composition of the cell. The results show that this spectroscopic method can be used to study the most important cellular functions involved in cell-biomaterial interactions, such as cell death, differentiation, de-differentiation and mineralization. The method offers the potential for studying cell-bioceramics interaction and reduce the need of animal testing until the final steps of proving efficacy prior to clinical trials.