Laser stimulation can activate autophagy in HeLa cells
- Ultrafast Laser Laboratory, Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology (Ministry of Education), College of Precision Instrument and Optoelectronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin (China)
- Key Laboratory of Microbial Functional Genomics of Ministry of Education, College of Life Sciences, Nankai University, Tianjin (China)
For decades, lasers have been a daily tool in most biological research for fluorescent excitation by confocal or multiphoton microscopy. More than 20 years ago, cell photodamage caused by intense laser stimulation was noticed by generating reactive oxygen species, which was then thought as the main damage effect by photons. In this study, we show that laser stimulation can induce autophagy, an important cell lysosomal pathway responding to immune stimulation and starvation, without any biochemical treatment. Two different types of laser stimulations are found to be capable of activating autophagy: continuous scanning by continuous-wave visible lasers and a short-time flash of femtosecond laser irradiation. The autophagy generation is independent from wavelength, power, and scanning duration of the visible lasers. In contrast, the power of femtosecond laser is very critical to autophagy because the multiphoton excited Ca{sup 2+} dominates autophagy signaling. In general, we show here the different mechanisms of autophagy generation by such laser stimulation, which correspond to confocal microscopy and cell surgery, respectively. Those results can help further understanding of photodamage and autophagy signaling.
- OSTI ID:
- 22310688
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 105, Issue 17; 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
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