Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Nov-Dec;31(6):1131-1137.
doi: 10.21873/invivo.11179.

FT-IR Spectroscopy Study in Early Diagnosis of Skin Cancer

Maria Kyriakidou  1 , Jane Anastassopoulou  1 , Aristeidis Tsakiris  1   2 , Maria Koui  1 , Theophile Theophanides  3
Affiliations

FT-IR Spectroscopy Study in Early Diagnosis of Skin Cancer

Maria Kyriakidou et al. In Vivo. 2017 Nov-Dec.

Abstract

Background/aim: Mid-infrared spectroscopy (4000-500 cm-1) was used to analyze the spectral changes and differences of the characteristic absorption bands of the skin components due to cancer development for early clinical diagnosis.

Materials and methods: Human biopsies from basal cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma, and nevus were used, while normal skin tissue served as a control.

Results: The high quality of Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectra showed that upon cancer development the intensity of the absorption band at approximately 3062 cm-1 was increased, indicating that most of the proteins had the configuration of amide B and the β-sheet protein structure predominated. The stretching vibration bands of vCH2 in the region 2950-2850 cm-1 were increased in melanoma and nevus, while were less pronounced in basal cell carcinoma due to the increased lipophilic environment. In addition, the intensity of a new band at 1744 cm-1, which is assigned to aldehyde, was increased in melanoma and nevus and appeared as a shoulder in the spectra of normal skin. The absorption band of amide I at 1650 cm-1 was split into two bands, at 1650 cm-1 and 1633 cm-1, due to the presence of both α-helix and random coil protein conformations for melanoma and nevus. This was confirmed from the amide II band at 1550 cm-1, which shifted to lower frequencies at 1536 cm-1 and 1540 cm-1 for basal cell carcinoma and melanoma, respectively, indicating a damage of the native structure of proteins. The bands at 841 and 815 cm-1, which are assigned to B-DNA and Z-DNA, respectively, indicated that only the bands of the cancerous Z-DNA form are pronounced in melanoma, while in BCC both the characteristic bands of B-DNA and Z-DNA forms are found.

Conclusion: It is proposed that the bands described above could be used as "diagnostic marker" bands for DNA forms, in the diagnosis of skin cancer.

Keywords: Skin cancer; basal cell carcinoma (BCC); diagnostic bands; infrared spectroscopy; melanoma (MM); nevous (NEV).

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. FT-IR spectra of skin tissues: normal healthy tissue (N), basal cell carcinoma (BCC), melanoma (MM) and nevus (NEV), in the region 4000-400 cm–1.
Figure 2
Figure 2. FT-IR spectra of skin tissues: normal healthy tissue (N), basal cell carcinoma (BCC), melanoma (MM) and nevus (NEV), in the region 900-800 cm–1.
Figure 3
Figure 3. FT-IR spectra of normal skin tissue (N) subtracted from the spectra of melanoma (MM) tissue (MM-N).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Reactions of hyaluronic acid (HA) with hydroxyl free radicals (HO*). The site of HA* radical formation is random and one monomer is shown here, which is denoted by the dashed lines. The final byproducts 5 and 6 are stable and are produced from the free radical 2.
Figure 5
Figure 5. FT-IR spectra of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) subtracted from the spectra of melanoma (MM) tissue (MM-BCC).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Seebode C, Lehmann J, Emmert S. Photocarcinogenesis and skin cancer prevention strategies. Anticancer Res. 2016;33(3):1371–1378. - PubMed
    1. Grammenandi K, Kyriazi M, Katsarou-Katsari A, Papadopoulos O, Anastassopoulou I, Papaioannou GT, Sagriotis A, Rallis M, Maibach HI. Low-molecular-weight hydrophilic and lipophilic antioxidants in nonmelanoma skin carcinomas and adjacent normal-looking skin. Skin Pharmacol Physiol. 2016;29:324–333. - PubMed
    1. Delinasios G. UVA-induced oxidative stress and DNA damage in human skin cells and photoprotection by antioxidant compounds. PhD Thesis, King’s College, London, UK. 2012
    1. Fell Gl, Robinson KC, Mao J, Woolf CL, Fisher DE. Skin β-endorphin mediates addiction to UV light. Cell. 2014;157(7):1527–1534. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Brauche E, Johannsen H, Nolag S, Trude S, Schenke-Layland Design and analysis of a squamous cell carcinoma in vitro model system. Biomaterials. 2014;34:7401–7407. - PubMed

MeSH terms