Research on optical properties of human hepatoma cells using terahertz time-domain spectroscopy

Terahertz technology is a non-invasive and label-free inspection method, promising for applications in various fields, especially in biomedical diagnosis. Terahertz radiation is capable for cell physiological and pathological status recognition due to its sensitivity to cell composition and structural information of biomacromolecular. In this paper, the transmission properties of glass, polymethyl methacrylate and polypropylene in THz regime were compared and polypropylene was selected as the petri dish material for cell adhesion due to its high transmission of terahertz wave. The time-domain and frequency-domain spectra, refractive index and absorption coefficient of hepatoma cell line Huh7 and normal cell line MIHA were analyzed. The experimental results showed significant distinction between the terahertz characteristic spectra of hepatoma cells and normal cells. This work can be helpful for applying terahertz technology in cancer detection at the cellular level.