Sunday, April 6, 2014

Abstract-Effect of intense THz pulses on expression of genes associated with skin cancer and inflammatory skin conditions


Lyubov V. TitovaAyesheshim K. AyesheshimDavid PurschkeFrank A. Hegmann
Univ. of Alberta (Canada)
Andrey GolubovRocio Rodriguez-JuarezRafal WoycickiOlga Kovalchuk
Univ. of Lethbridge (Canada)
Proc. SPIE 8941, Optical Interactions with Tissue and Cells XXV; and Terahertz for Biomedical Applications, 89411G (March 13, 2014); doi:10.1117/12.2044167
The growing experimental evidence suggests that broadband, picosecond-duration THz pulses may influence biological systems and functions. While the mechanisms by which THz pulse-induced biological effects are not yet known, experiments using in vitro cell cultures, tissue models, as well as recent in vivo studies have demonstrated that THz pulses can elicit cellular and molecular changes in exposed cells and tissues in the absence of thermal effects. Recently, we demonstrated that intense, picosecond THz pulses induce phosphorylation of H2AX, indicative of DNA damage, and at the same time activate DNA damage response in human skin tissues. We also find that intense THz pulses have a profound impact on global gene expression in human skin. Many of the affected genes have important functions in epidermal differentiation and have been implicated in skin cancer and inflammatory skin conditions. The observed THzinduced changes in expression of these genes are in many cases opposite to disease-related changes, suggesting possible therapeutic applications of intense THz pulses. © (2014) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

No comments: