Charakterisierung der Raman-Signaturen von Epithelzellen in unterschiedlichen Stadien der malignen Transformation im Tiermodell der Adenom-Karzinom-Sequenz im Kolon

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Iver Petersen; Professor Dr. Jürgen Popp; Professor Dr. Andreas Stallmach
• Subject Area: Analytical Chemistry ; Gastroenterology
• Term: from 2010 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 186905803

In the context of the present proposal the foundations for an efficient and rapid tissue diagnostics based on Raman spectroscopy should be further evaluated in terms of a spectroscopic modeling of the adenoma-carcinoma-sequence, the influence of different populations on a Raman-based diagnostic model and the transferability of diagnostic models on human samples. Based on the Raman data already obtained the spectroscopic modeling of the adenoma-carcinoma-sequence is investigated, in order to elicit the spectral changes during carcinogenesis. Based on this modeling the time point during the adenoma-carcinoma-sequence can be determined, at which a reliable diagnosis can be made based on the Raman signature. Furthermore, it is planned to separately study animals of different genetic dispositions. The question to be answered is whether the carcinogenesis differs in these populations and, consequently, a Raman-based diagnosis method must reflect these differences. This can be tested by constructing a Raman diagnostic model for the two populations and by comparing these models afterwards with respect to their spectral profile and their classification accuracies. In doing so, a large number of animals for both populations is needed to draw reliable statistical conclusions. Since many experimental data can be used from the first funding period, only a few data have to be measured again. The third focus of this study lies on testing the transferability of the animal models to human samples. In this proof-of-concept approach, Raman spectra of human samples (adenoma, carcinoma, normal mucosa) are recorded in order to evaluate the comparability with the measurements on mouse tissue sections. In case such a comparability is given the results/models from the mouse study can be directly adopted. If the comparability is not guaranteed first tests should be performed to unravel a Raman cancer signature in humans. All these studies have the goal to better understand the Raman based cancer diagnostics, its potential and its limitations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants