Many conventional biochemical assays are performed using populations of cells to determine their quantitative biomolecular profiles. However, population averages do not reflect actual physiological processes in individual cells, which occur either on short time scales or nonsynchronously. Therefore, accurate analysis at the single-cell level has become a highly attractive tool for investigating cellular content. Microfluidic chips with arrays of microwells were developed for single-cell chemical lysis in the present study. The cellular occupancy in 30-mm-diameter microwells (91.45%) was higher than that in 20-mm-diameter microwells (83.19%) at an injection flow rate of 2.8 mL/min. However, most of the occupied 20-mm-diameter microwells contained individual cells. The results of chemical lysis experiments at the single-cell level indicate that cell membranes were gradually lysed as the lysis buffer was injected; they were fully lysed after 12 s. Single-cell chemical lysis was demonstrated in the proposed microfluidic chip, which is suitable for high-throughput cell lysis.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major public health problem. Here, we developed a novel model of non-invasive TBI induced by laser irradiation in the telencephalon of adult zebrafish (Danio rerio) and assessed their behavior and neuromorphology to validate the model and evaluate potential targets for neuroreparative treatment. Overall, TBI induced hypolocomotion and anxiety-like behavior in the novel tank test, strikingly recapitulating responses in mammalian TBI models, hence supporting the face validity of our model. NeuN-positive cell staining was markedly reduced one day, but not seven days, after TBI, suggesting increased neuronal damage immediately after the injury, and its fast recovery. The brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Bdnf) level in the brain dropped immediately after the trauma, but fully recovered seven days later. A marker of microglial activation, Iba1, was elevated in the TBI brain, albeit decreasing from Day 3. The levels of hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (Hif1a) increased 30 min after the injury, and recovered by Day 7, further supporting the construct validity of the model. Collectively, these findings suggest that our model of laser-induced brain injury in zebrafish reproduces mild TBI and can be a useful tool for TBI research and preclinical neuroprotective drug screening.

An algorithm for statistical processing of the set of multicomponent excitation–emission matrices for laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy is proposed that is based on principal component analysis. It is shown for the first time that the fluorescence emission and excitation spectra of unknown fluorophores in optically thin samples can be calculated. Using the proposed algorithm, it is possible to pass from principal components with alternating signs to positive quantities corresponding to the spectra of real substances. The method is applied to a mixture of three fluorescent dyes, and it is demonstrated that the obtained spectra of principal components well reproduce the spectra of initial dyes.

Excitation-emission matrices of various plastic package samples were studied. A tuneable 210-310 nm laser was used as an excitation source. The samples of polyethylene terephthalate, polypropylene, and high-density polyethylene of various colour and transparency showed multipeak wideband fluorescence spectra dependent on the excitation wavelength. Principal component analysis demonstrated that the excitation-emission matrices of most samples are well described by two principal components, individual for their types and colorant additives. Despite complex structure of the excitation-emission matrices of different types of the plastic, appropriate linear combinations of the principal components allowed finding a characteristic component for each of them.