Results in Physics 7 (2017) 1221–1222

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Microarticle

Insulin overlapping in whole blood FTIR spectroscopy in blood glucose

measurements
G. Romo-Cárdenas ⇑, J. de D. Sánchez-López, P.A. Luque, M. Cosío-León, Juan I. Nieto-Hipólito,
Mabel Vázquez-Briseño
Facultad de Ingeniería Arquitectura y Diseño, Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, 22860 Ensenada, Mexico

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: For the last decade, several studies on mid-IR spectroscopy for blood glucose quantification have not con-
Received 5 December 2016 sidered the compounds involved in the glucose regulation mechanism, in which insulin plays an impor-
Received in revised form 16 March 2017 tant role. This work shows how insulin overlaps in the same mid-IR region in which glucose is quantified.
Accepted 17 March 2017
This optical absorption interference is an important factor to be considered for this type of studies, in the
Available online 21 March 2017
scope of whole blood modeling for spectroscopy applications and the possible use of computer based
metrics.
Keywords:
Ó 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND
Biomedical Optics
Glucose quantification
license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Whole blood
Insulin
FTIR Spectroscopy

Introduction scope would bring a better understanding of the role of insulin

during glucose quantification by spectroscopic means in the mid-
In the search to develop non-invasive alternatives to the com- IR region.
mon digital glucometer, several studies have explored techniques
for blood glucose quantification based in mid-IR spectroscopy
Methods
[1,2]. In [3], authors reported that wavelengths between 9 and
11 lm are useful for the proper measurement.
An initial spectroscopy characterization for insulin was made
Several studies, in their in vitro stages, have reported the use of
with an intermediate-acting, human recombinant DNA origin insu-
aqueous glucose samples, in order to analyze the viability of the
lin pharmaceutical sample (Lilly, Humulin NÒ), which was com-
technique, using a simplified blood phantom and from there,
pared with the spectrum obtained from a glucose standard
developing a protocol to acquire and analyze spectra aiming to
solution at 550 mg/dL (Carolina Biological Supply). The acquisition
quantify glucose [3–5]. But, when these techniques have been
of blood samples with glucose concentration gradient, was done
transferred into an in vivo scenario, they had required the applica-
using an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). For health and safety
tion of different mathematical methods to transform the results
reasons, it was applied to a healthy subject [9]; from whom drop
and get a possible reading for the glucose concentration [6,7].
size blood samples were acquired and quantified with a digital glu-
Therefore, in order to obtain a better understanding of the interac-
cometer (Jhonson & Jhonson, One touch Ultra 2Ò). The absorption
tion between actual blood samples and infrared light in the IR
spectra for the blood, glucose and insulin samples were obtained
region mentioned above, it is important to consider whole blood
with a FTIR spectrometer (PerkinElmer, Spectrum Two), with a res-
composition and the compounds involved in the glucose regulation
olution of 4 cm 1. In order to obtain specific readings from the
mechanism. In both, insulin plays a predominant role for the opti-
changes in glucose concentration from the OGTT trials, a sample
cal absorption in the region in which glucose had been measured,
from the fasting state of the subject was considered to be the back-
and in the glucose concentration regulation [8]. A study in this
ground reading. Therefore, all changes in the absorption spectra
from the blood samples are related to concentration variations in
⇑ Corresponding author. glucose and its correspondent regulation mechanism compounds,
E-mail address: romo.gerardo@uabc.edu.mx (G. Romo-Cárdenas). neglecting the effects from the rest of blood components.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2017.03.017
2211-3797/Ó 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1222 G. Romo-Cárdenas et al. / Results in Physics 7 (2017) 1221–1222

perspective, insulin release in the blood stream is triggered by

0.006 means of carbohydrate intake, making it available during the OGTT
Insulin 1 U/ml
at a positive and similar rate than glucose [11]. The optical absor-
Glucose 550 mg/dL
0.005 bance interference of these compounds doesn’t allow a direct glu-
Absorption [A.U.]

cose quantification.
0.004
Conclusions
0.003
In summary, we show that insulin is a glucose regulation com-
pound that overlaps in the same mid-IR region than glucose and
0.002
has a similar optical absorption at physiological relevant concen-
trations, not allowing a direct glucose concentration quantification
0.001 from blood samples. It is important to consider this finding for the
implementation of whole blood in vitro modeling for spectroscopic
0.000 applications. Given that type II and gestational diabetes patients
1150 1100 1050 1000
-1
950 900 are capable of releasing insulin into the blood stream, it is relevant
Wavenumber [cm ] to study its involvement in the measurement, as well as the other
Fig. 1. FTIR spectrum for both native insulin and glucose samples. glucose regulation mechanism compounds in the spectroscopic
analysis, aiming for quantification purposes. These results are
important because it provides relevant information to define safe
003 protocols for similar experiments in diabetic patients. Also to
Base 87mg/dL (t=0) explore the quantification of the involvement of each compound
102 mg/dL (t=10 mins) in the optical measurement and invites to consider novel tech-
113 mg/dL (t=20 mins) niques, like some proposed in chemometrics, which involves the
130 mg/dL (t=30 mins) use of mathematical and computer based algorithms in order to
0.002 103 mg/dL (t=40 mins) address a solution for a quantification and classification of complex
Absorption [A.U.]

91 mg/dL (t=50 mins) biochemical systems.

Acknowledgments

0.001 We acknowledge the financial support from Universidad Autó-

noma de Baja California, MyDCI graduate program and CONACYT
for the realization of this project.

0.000
1150 1100 1050 1000
-1
Wavenumber [cm ]
Fig. 2. FTIR spectrum from blood samples during OGTT of a healthy specimen.
Results
Insulin is a peptic hormone which has an absorption spectrum
in the mid-IR region that also corresponds to glucose [8]. Fig. 1
shows that the absorption spectrum is found in the same region
for both glucose and insulin (1100–900 cm 1). Even though they
correspond to different vibrational modes [10], their absorption
magnitude is on the same range.
Fig. 2 shows the spectra obtained from blood samples during
the OGTT, in which an increase in the absorption spectra at the glu-
cose specific region (1100–1000 cm 1) is observed. Nonetheless, in
the same figure, the absorption peaks for the samples obtained at
t = 40 min and t = 50 min, which have a similar magnitude, would
be expected to be below the one that corresponds to the highest
concentration (t = 30 min), given the amount of glucose contained
in them.
These unexpected absorption readings could be associated to
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the insulin existent in the blood samples. From a medical