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Updated: Dec 18, 2025
Measurement of Particle Size Distribution in Turbid Solutions by Dynamic Light Scattering Microscopy
Published on: January 9, 2017
Molecular Aggregation in Immune System Activation Studied by Dynamic Light Scattering
Elena Velichko1, Sergey Makarov1, Elina Nepomnyashchaya1
1Institute of Physics, Nanotechnology and Telecommunications, Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University, St. Petersburg 195251, Russia.
Insights
Dynamic light scattering (DLS) effectively measures circulating immune complexes (CICs) in blood serum. Healthy individuals show faster CIC formation and different sizes/concentrations compared to those with diseases, aiding immune diagnostics.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Biomedical Diagnostics
- Biophysics
Background:
- Circulating immune complexes (CICs) are crucial biomarkers for immune disease diagnostics.
- Accurate determination of CIC size and concentration is essential for clinical assessment.
- Current diagnostic methods may have limitations in assessing CIC dynamics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the efficacy of dynamic light scattering (DLS) for sizing and quantifying CICs in human blood serum.
- To investigate the differences in CIC size and concentration between healthy donors and patients with immune-related diseases.
- To analyze the dynamics of CIC formation in different donor groups.
Main Methods:
- Utilized a dynamic light scattering spectrometer to analyze blood serum samples.
- Collected and processed serum from both healthy and diseased donors.
- Measured the size distribution and estimated the concentration of CICs.
Main Results:
- Significant differences in CIC size and concentration were observed between healthy and sick donors.
- CIC formation dynamics varied, with faster complexation noted in healthy donors' blood serum.
- DLS provided quantifiable data on CIC characteristics.
Conclusions:
- Dynamic light scattering is a viable method for determining CIC size and concentration in biomedical diagnostics.
- Observed differences in CIC characteristics and formation dynamics can aid in immune status assessment.
- The findings support the implementation of DLS for diagnosing immune diseases and detecting chronic inflammation.
Abstract:
Determination of the concentration and size of the circulating immune complexes in the blood is an essential part of diagnostics of immune diseases. In this work, we suggest using the dynamic light scattering method to determine the sizes of circulating immune complexes in blood serum. By the dynamic light scattering spectrometer, we found that for healthy and sick donors, the size and concentration of circulating immune complexes differed significantly. The dynamics of formation of these complexes were also examined in this work. It was shown that the formation of immune complexes in the blood of healthy donors is faster than the same reactions in the blood serum of donors with diseases. The results can be used in the diagnostics of the immune status and detection of chronic inflammation. We can recommend the dynamic light scattering method for implementation in biomedical diagnostics.
