Effect of low intensity laser interaction with human skin fibroblast cells using fiber-optic nano-probes

Over the past forty years, many efforts have been devoted to study low power laser light interactions with biological systems. Some of the investigations were performed in-vitro, on bulk cell populations. Our present work was undertaken to apply specially engineered fiber-optic based nano-probes for the precise delivery of laser light on to a single cell and to observe production of low power laser light induced reactive oxygen species (ROS). A normal human skin fibroblast (NHF) cell line was utilized in this investigation and the cells were irradiated under two different schemes of exposure: (1) an entire NHF cell population within a Petri dish using a fan beam methodology, and (2) through the precise delivery of laser energy on to a single NHF cell using fiber-optic nano-probe. Photobiostimulative studies were conducted through variation of laser intensity, exposure time, and the energy dose of exposure. Laser irradiation induced enhancement in the rate of cell proliferation was observed to be dependent on laser exposure parameters and the method of laser delivery. The total energy dose (fluence) had a greater influence on the enhancement in the rate of cellular proliferation than compared to laser intensity. The enhancement in the growth rate was observed to have a finite life-time of several days after the initial laser exposure. Fluorescent life-time imaging of ROS was performed during the nano-based single cell exposure method. The kinetics of ROS generation was found to depend strongly on the laser fluence and not on the laser intensity.