Laser light induced modulations in metabolic activities in human brain cancer

摘要

The role of low visible or near infra-red laser intensity in suppressing metabolic activity of malignant human brain cancer (glioblastoma) cells was investigated through the application of either a continuous wave 633nm HeNe or a pulsed picosecond l,552nm wavelength laser. Human glioblastomas were exposed in their growth culture medium with serum for several energy doses. For both types of laser exposures the glioblastomas exhibited a maximal decline in the metabolic activity relative to their respective sham control counterparts at 10 J/cm~2. The cellular metabolic activities for various treatment doses were measured through the colorimetric MTS metabolic assay after the laser exposure. Interestingly, addition of (the enzyme) catalase in the growth medium prior to the laser exposure was found to diminish the laser induced metabolic suppression for all fluence treatment conditions, thus suggesting a functional role of H_2O_2 in the metabolic suppression. Taken together, our findings reveal that visible or near infra-red low level light exposures could potentially be a viable tool in reducing the metabolic activity of cancers; evidence at hand implicates a role of light induced H_2O_2 in bringing about in part, suppression in the metabolic activity. Due to the cellular "biphasic" response to the laser exposure, further research needs to be undertaken to determine exposure parameters which would optimize metabolic and cellular growth suppression in-vivo.