Résumé
Confocal Raman microscopy, a non-invasive, label free and high spatial resolution imaging technique is used to study apoptosis in living MCF-7 cells. The images are obtained based on the Raman spectra of cells components and drug and are treated by K-mean cluster analysis method to localize drug in cell. Distribution of paclitaxel in cells is verified by calculating the correlation coefficient between the reference spectrum of the paclitaxel and the Raman spectra of the whole image. Our results show that the drug is distributed all over in the cytoplasm, that is in good agreement with other recent researches suggesting a new picture of the pharmaceutical action of this drug based on rapid binding of crystallized paclitaxel to free tubulin. Finally cell apoptosis is monitored by tracing cytochrome c apparition and distribution in cytoplasm.