Pulsetrain-burst mode, ultrafast-laser interactions with 3D viable cell cultures as a model for soft biological tissues.
A 3D living-cell culture in hydrogel has been developed as a standardized low-tensile-strength tissue proxy for study of ultrafast, pulsetrain-burst laser-tissue interactions. The hydrogel is permeable to fluorescent biomarkers and optically transparent, allowing viable and necrotic cells to be imaged in 3D by confocal microscopy. Good cell-viability allowed us to distinguish between typical cell mortality and delayed subcellular tissue damage (e.g., apoptosis and DNA repair complex formation), caused by laser irradiation. The range of necrosis depended on laser intensity, but not on pulsetrain-burst duration. DNA double-strand breaks were quantified, giving a preliminary upper limit for genetic damage following laser treatment.
Department of Physics, & Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
Zuoming
Z
Qian
Department of Physics, & Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada ; Current address: Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, 1101 Beal Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109, USA.
Aghapi
A
Mordovanakis
Department of Physics, & Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
Joshua E
JE
Schoenly
Department of Physics, & Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
Andrés
A
Covarrubias
Department of Physics, & Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
Yuanfeng
Y
Feng
Princess Margaret Hospital, Ontario Cancer Institute and Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, 610 University Ave., Toronto ON M5G 2M9, Canada.
Lothar
L
Lilge
Department of Physics, & Institute for Optical Sciences, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto ON M5S 1A7, Canada.
Robin S
RS
Marjoribanks
(140.3440) Laser-induced breakdown; (160.1435) Biomaterials; (170.1020) Ablation of tissue; (170.2520) Fluorescence microscopy; (320.7090) Ultrafast lasers; (350.3390) Laser materials processing