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Title: Controllable generation of reactive oxygen species by femtosecond-laser irradiation

Journal Article · · Applied Physics Letters
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4866802· OSTI ID:22293088
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  1. Ultrafast Laser Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology (Ministry of Education), College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin (China)

Femtosecond lasers have been advancing Biophotonics research in the past two decades with multiphoton microscopy, microsurgery, and photodynamic therapy. Nevertheless, laser irradiation is identified to bring photodamage to cells via reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation with unclear mechanism. Meanwhile, currently in biological researches, there is no effective method to provide controllable ROS production precisely, which originally is leaked from mitochondria during respiration and plays a key role in a lot of important cellular processes and cellular signaling pathways. In this study, we show the process of how the tightly focused femtosecond-laser induces ROS generation solely in mitochondria at the very beginning and then release to cytosol if the stimulus is intense enough. At certain weak power levels, the laser pulses induce merely moderate Ca{sup 2+} release but this is necessary for the laser to generate ROS in mitochondria. Cellular original ROS are also involved with a small contribution. When the power is above a threshold, ROS are then released to cytosol, indicating photodamage overwhelming cellular repair ability. The mechanisms in those two cases are quite different. Those results clarify parts of the mechanism in laser-induced ROS generation. Hence, it is possible to further this optical scheme to provide controllable ROS generation for ROS-related biological researches including mitochondrial diseases and aging.

OSTI ID:
22293088
Journal Information:
Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 104, Issue 8; Other Information: (c) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English