Human Urine-Borne Cells

The next application to be discussed is that of urine cytology, in which epithelial cells contained in urine are analyzed for abnormalities. Urine cytology is not carried out routinely in the US, even though urine samples are collected frequently and, in 2005, bladder cancer was the fifth most common cancer among males, and the eighth most common cancer among females. Presumably, routine urine 

Normal human urine contains both squamous cells from the distal urethra, and urothelial cells from the Uning of the bladder. The former ceU type may be further subdivided into glycogen-containing and glycogen-free squamous cells. Here, we aim to establish that IR spectral methods, followed by multivariate data analysis, can distinguish between these cells types. Our ultimate intention is to establish this methodology as a low-cost, automated test for bladder cancer. 

Squamous cells represent the vast majority of cells found in voided urine collected from healthy individuals, which contains very small numbers of transitional (urothelial) epithelial cells [24], an observation confirmed by our spectroscopic studies. For the squamous cells, a large variation in the overall amplitude of the spectra is observed, in accordance with previously discussed results for oral mucosa cells (see Section 5.3.2.1). Absorbance values recorded for the amide I band vary between 0.05 and 0.8 AU for the squamous cells. It is believed that these variations are largely due to deviations in both ceU thickness and the nucleus cytoplasm ratio vnthin the spatial area sampled [5, 20]. 

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Spectral Cytopathology Distinction of Cell Types and Disease in Human Urine-Borne Cells and Oral, Cervical, and Esophageal Cells... 

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