Abstract
X-ray radiation treatments are largely adopted in radiotherapy, and Fourier-transform infrared microspectroscopy (μ-FTIR) has already been demonstrated to be a useful instrument for monitoring radiotherapy effects. Previous works in this field have focused on studying the changes occurring in cells when they are fixed immediately after the irradiation or 24 and 48 h later. In the present paper, changes occurring in SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells in the first hours after the irradiation are examined to obtain information on the processes taking place in this not-yet-investigated time window by using μ-FTIR. For this purpose, cell samples were fixed immediately after X-ray exposure, and 2 and 4 h after irradiation and investigated along with unexposed cells. Different data analysis procedures were implemented to estimate the changes in lipid, protein, and DNA spectral contributions. The present investigation on the effects of X-ray in the first hours after the exposure is helpful for better describing the processes occurring in this time window that offer the possibility of a timely check on the efficacy of X-ray treatments and can potentially be applied for planning personalized treatment as required by the most advanced medical therapy.