¹(Qatar Biomedical Research Institute, QBRI, Doha, Qatar). ²(Qatar University, (Khalid Al-Saad, Depratment of Chemistry) and (Anton Popelka, Center for Advanced Materials, Doha, Qatar). ³Biomedical MR Imaging and Spectroscopy Group, Center for Image Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands. ⁴Université Libre de Bruxelles, Structure and Function of Biological Membranes Center for Structural Biology and Bioinformatics Brussels, Belgium.

*Corresponding Author E-mail: moaam@yahoo.com

Accepted 26th January, 2016

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was assessed as a potential rapid and objective diagnostic platform to investigate pathological and physiological changes at 9 weeks post stroke. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) was also used in order to investigate the changes in bio-mechanical and bio-physical properties of the brain due to stroke. Unilateral stroke in the sensorimotor area was induced by photothrombosis in rats, under 1.5-2% isoflurane anesthesia. Brains were extracted, post-fixated in 4% paraformaldehyde and embedded in paraffin. FTIR spectra of the stroke-affected samples showed that there is a decrease in the white matter lipid content. The FTIR results indicated that there are bio-chemical changes in amide I band in the protein region as well as in the ester band. Principal component analysis (PCA) in the 1800-1000 cm-1 spectral range showed that the white matter in stroke-affected brain sample exhibits chemical composition changes in an amide I, amide II and ester bands. AFM results implied that physical changes in the stroke samples led to the significant increase of the surface roughness as the result of increased tension in the brain tissue. The changes in the surface morphology resulted in the increase of mechanical parameters such as elastic modulus (Er) and hardness (H) of stroke samples. FTIR spectroscopy in combination with chemometric analysis a non-destructive and powerful approach to be used as a medical diagnosis tool in order to investigate the pathological changes associated with stroke in the brain tissues. The AFM confirmed that the surface roughness increase in stroke samples.

Keywords: FTIR, Brain stroke, PCA, AFM, Surface morphology and Nanoindentation

How To Cite This Article:

Mohamed. H. M. Ali, , Khalid Al-Saad, , Anton Popelka, Geralda van Tilborg, Erik Goormaghtigh. Application of Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy in Stroke-Affected Brain Tissue. Swift Journal of Medicine and Medical Sciences 2(2), pp. 011-024.