ABSTRACT
Lethal sonoporation and reparable sonoporation were observed in Jurkat lymphocytes in suspension with the addition of varying amounts of Optison, a commercially available bubble-based contrast agent. For given ultrasound (US) exposure conditions (spatial peak-pressure amplitude of 0.2 MPa, duty cycle 10% and 2-MHz frequency), sonoporation was directly related to the bubble-to-cell ratio (in a range from 0 to 230). It was found that the nearest bubble-cell spacing was also related to the occurrence frequency of bioeffects. A constant bubble-to-cell ratio often provided very different results for two different initial cell concentrations (200,000 cells/mL and 600,000 cells/mL), with the higher cell concentration generally exhibiting higher levels of sonoporation. In contrast, a constant bubble-to-cell spacing provided similar results between the two initial cell concentrations. The frequency of reparable and lethal sonoporation was seen to decay as the inverse-cube power of the nearest bubble-cell spacing. Significant reparable sonoporation was observed at a bubble-cell spacing that was 10 microm larger than the minimum spacing at which significant lethal sonoporation was observed. Preliminary analysis also suggests the possibility of a step-wise increase in lethal sonoporation as spacing decreases; further experiment is needed.
