Infrared micro-spectroscopy of human cells: Causes for the spectral variance of oral mucosa (buccal) cells

We discuss the causes contributing to the variance of the spectra of individual human epithelial cells. This aspect has largely been ignored in previous studies, but needs to be understood for diagnostic applications of infrared micro-spectroscopy. We attribute the spectral variance to Mie scattering, and to variations of nuclear contributions to the overall spectra caused by different nuclear size.