Consideration on suppression of cancer cell proliferation by ultrasound exposure using sonochemical and biological measurements

The suppression methods of cancer cells proliferation using ultrasound exposure are investigated to develop a new minimally invasive cancer treatment method. A stainless steel vibrating plate with a Langevin type transducer is attached to the bottom of a water tank of the ultrasound exposure system used in this study. Ultrasound was irradiated to cancer cells of mouse T lymphoma (EL-4) in a flask. A decreasing tendency of the number of viable cancer cells exposed to ultrasound of 150 kHz and acoustic intensity ISPTP of 750 mW/cm2 was confirmed in the culturing process. Then, the suppression mechanism of cancer cell proliferation by ultrasound exposure was considered through confirmation of apoptosis and necrosis with the exposed cancer cells by electrophoresis and enzyme activity measurements. It was found that the apoptosis was induced on the cancer cells after ultrasound exposure. We confirmed the generation of hydroxyl radical in water in the water tank by ESR device. When the hydroxyl radicals were scavenged by adding ethanol to the culture medium for cancer cells, the apoptosis was not induced and proliferation was not suppressed. Therefore, we found that generation of activated oxygen in the culturing medium by ultrasound exposure was caused to apoptosis induction and suppression of cancer cell proliferation. We will present the results of above consideration in this conference