Raman Spectroscopy Based Techniques in Tissue Engineering—An Overview

Abstract

Abstract: This article reviews the most recent applications of Raman spectroscopy (RS) in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine (TERM). Raman spectroscopy can potentially alleviate the current lack of capabilities to capture important biological data beyond the standard metabolite and pH indicators in tissue bioreactors. Key process components in bioreactors that are important to evaluate cellular integrity and functionality of tissue-engineered constructs include cells, scaffolds, and proteins. A number of studies are discussed to highlight the capability of RS in noninvasive, nondestructive, and label-free in situ analysis. Protein detection is emphasized due to the urgent need for faster and cheaper techniques. The extensiveness of protein detection studies and the inadequacy of current technology formulate the basis for detailing relevant methods seeking to improve the detection limit, specificity, or multiplexing performance of RS. We argue that RS has great promise to solve the key problem in tissue bioprocessing, namely, inadequate monitoring capabilities that handicap TERM from rising to prevalence in clinical practice.

Keywords::

• Raman spectroscopy
• tissue engineering
• regenerative medicine
• stem cells
• tissue scaffolds
• tissue bioreactor media
• protein detection
• SERS
• intrinsic
• extrinsic
• online monitoring