NOVEL SPECTROSCOPIC DECONVOLUTION PROCEDURE FOR COMPLEX BIOLOGICAL-SYSTEMS - VIBRATIONAL COMPONENTS IN THE FT-RAMAN SPECTRA OF ICE-MAN AND CONTEMPORARY SKIN

Skin samples from the corpse of a late-Neolithic man (5200 years BC) f ound in a glacier in Oetzal, commonly known as the Ice-man, have been analysed using FT-Raman spectroscopy. Good quality spectra have been o btained and compared with those from contemporary freeze-dried stratum corneum, using a time-dependent FT deconvolution method. This provide d vibrational spectroscopic information about unresolved or partially resolved features including band halfwidth data, which are particularl y useful for identifying membrane order-disorder variations between an cient and modern tissues. At the molecular level, the majority of the vibrational modes present in contemporary tissue were also evident in the spectra of the ancient skin, although Ice-man skin differed from m odern skin in the nu(C-H) stretching region, attributable to the oxida tion of alkenic bonds. Additionally, some degradation of the protein c omponents (i.e. keratin) was indicated by the reduction in vibrational intensity of the amide I[nu(C-O)] and amide III[nu(C-N) and delta(N-H )] modes.