Study on suppression mechanism of cancer cells proliferation by ultrasound exposure for minimally invasive cancer treatment

Abstract

The effect of ultrasound exposure on cancer cell proliferation properties and its mechanism has been studied in our laboratory. The suppression of cancer cells proliferation rate in the culturing process after ultrasound exposure was confirmed. We suppose that the inertial cavitation generated by ultrasound exposure induced the apoptosis in the cancer cells. It was found with a digital microscope that the shape of the cancer cells did not change remarkably immediately after ultrasound exposure, but the cancer cells exposed to ultrasound shrunk gradually with passage of culturing time. Ladder patterns of electrophoresis were observed in the agarose gel with apoptosis induced cancer cells with ultrasound exposure. Therefore, it can be thought that the suppression of cancer cells proliferation by ultrasound exposure was caused by induction of apoptosis in the cancer cells.