A study by transmission electron microscopy on human glioblastoma cells after BNCT

Irradiation of the stable isotope 10B with biologically low effective thermal neutrons is followed by a transmutation of 10B to 7Li and an emission of high energy alpha particles which can lethally damage cell organelles and their molecules. This principle of cell damage was applied to the development of a new approach for selective destruction of a tumor cell, referred to as the boron neutron capture therapy (BNCT). This can cause cell damage to DNA, cell membranes, or other cell organelles, apoptosis and can finally induce a cell death. Apoptosis is characterized by specific morphological changes, including a chromatin condensation, nuclear and cytoplasmic fragmentation, and so on. In this study we used a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for a detection of the morphological change in glioblastoma cells pretreated with BPA after a neutron irradiation