Measurement and Characterization of Cellular Metabolic Activity by CO2 Production Monitoring, Soft X-ray Irradiation and Advanced Spectral Analysis

Results obtained using a new technique for studying cell metabolism are presented. The technique, consisting in CO2 production monitoring, has been applied to Saccharomyces cerevisiae yeast cells. Also, the cells were irradiated using soft X-ray generated by a laser-plasma source with the aim of producing a damage of metabolic processes at the wall level. X-ray doses delivered to the different cell compartments were estimated using a Lambert-Bouguet-Beer law. Immediately after irradiation, the effects on metabolic activity were measured by monitoring CO2 production. This has evidenced oscillations in cell metabolism and X-ray induced changes in oscillation frequency. In order to capture the main frequency components of the oscillation, minimum bias techniques has been used for spectral estimates.