猴子的大脑皮层主要由灰质和神经元组成,是大脑中调控行动和思维的区域。 选取在生命成长过程中具有代表性的3个年龄段(幼年、成年、老年)猴子的大脑皮层组织,首次测得其拉曼光谱。 实验结果显示,3个不同年龄段的猴子大脑皮层的拉曼光谱最明显的差异表现在1000-1400 cm-1和2800-3000 cm-1范围内。 随着年龄的增长,归属于脂类的拉曼峰1313和2 885 cm-1的强度越来越强,而归属于蛋白的拉曼峰1 338和2 932 cm-1的强度却逐渐减弱,并且在老年猴子大脑皮层的拉曼谱中出现了2个归属于脂类的拉曼峰1 296和2 850 cm-1,I1313/I1338和I2885/I2932的变化趋势很好地描述了这种差异。 研究表明,随着年龄的不断增长,猴子大脑皮层中脂类的含量逐渐增加,这样可以很好地说明大脑皮层中脂类的聚积是导致衰老的一个重要原因,为进一步研究人类和动物的生命活动规律、疾病的形成机理提供了很有价值的参考。

Monkey cerebral cortex,an important part in the brain to control action and thought activities,is mainly composed of grey matter and nerve cell. In the present paper,the in situ Raman spectra of the cerebral cortex of the birth,teenage and aged monkeys were achieved for the first time. The results show that the Raman spectra for the different age monkey cerebral cortex exhibit most obvious changes in the regions of 1 000-1 400 and 2 800-3 000 cm-1. With monkey growing up,the relative intensities of the Raman bands at 1 313 and 2 885 cm-1 mainly assigned to CH2 chain vibrational mode of lipid become stronger and stronger whereas the relative intensities of the Raman bands at 1 338 and 2 932 cm-1 mainly assigned to CH3 chain vibrational mode of protein become weaker and weaker. In addition,the two new Raman bands at 1 296 and 2 850 cm-1 are only observed in the aged monkey cerebral cortex,therefore,the two bands can be considered as a character or “marker” to differentiate the caducity degree with monkey growth. In order to further explore the changes,the relative intensity ratios of the Raman band at 1 313 cm-1 to that at 1 338 cm-1 and the Raman band at 2 885 cm-1 to that at 2 932 cm-1,I1 313/I1 338 and I2 885/I2 932,which are the lipid-to-protein ratios,are introduced to denote the degree of the lipid content. The results show that the relative intensity ratios increase significantly with monkey growth,namely,the lipid content in the cerebral cortex increases greatly with monkey growth. So,the authors can deduce that the overmuch lipid is an important cause to induce the caducity. Therefore,the results will be a powerful assistance and valuable parameter to study the order of life growth and diagnose diseases.