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Updated: Jan 24, 2026

Methods for Quantitative Detection of Antibody-induced Complement Activation on Red Blood Cells
Published on: January 29, 2014
Label-free quantitation of glycated hemoglobin in single red blood cells by transient absorption microscopy and
Pu-Ting Dong1, Haonan Lin2, Kai-Chih Huang2
1Department of Chemistry, Boston University, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Abstract:
As a stable and accurate biomarker, glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) is clinically used to diagnose diabetes with a threshold of 6.5% among total hemoglobin (Hb). Current methods such as boronate affinity chromatography involve complex processing of large-volume blood samples. Moreover, these methods cannot measure HbA1c fraction at single-red blood cell (RBC) level, thus unable to separate the contribution from other factors such as RBC lifetime. Here, we demonstrate a spectroscopic transient absorption imaging approach that is able to differentiate HbA1c from Hb on the basis of their distinct excited-state dynamics. HbA1c fraction inside a single RBC is derived quantitatively through phasor analysis. HbA1c fraction distribution of diabetic blood is apparently different from that of healthy blood. A mathematical model is developed to derive the long-term blood glucose concentration. Our technology provides a unique way to study heme modification and to derive clinically important information void of bloodstream glucose fluctuation.
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