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Updated: May 26, 2026
Generation and Quantitative Analysis of Pulsed Low Frequency Ultrasound to Determine the Sonic Sensitivity of Untreated and Treated Neoplastic Cells
Published on: July 22, 2015
Hypocrellin B-mediated sonodynamic action induces apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells
Xinna Wang1, Albert Wingnang Leung, Yuan Jiang
1Department of Ultrasound Medicine, The Affiliated Hospital, Xi'an Medical University, Xi'an, China.
Objective:
The present study aims to investigate apoptosis of hepatocellular carcinoma cells induced by hypocrellin B-mediated sonodynamic action.
Methods:
The hypocrellin B concentration was kept constant at 2.5 μM and cells from the hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cell line were exposed to ultrasound with an intensity of 0.46 W/cm(2) for 8s. Cell cytotoxicity was quantified using an MTT assay 24 h after sonodynamic therapy (SDT) of hypocrellin B. Apoptosis was investigated using a flow cytometry with Annexin V-FITC and propidium iodine staining. Intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels were detected using a flow cytometry with 2,7-dichlorodihydrofluorecein diacetate (DCFH-DA) staining.
Results:
The cytotoxicity of hypocrellin B-mediated sonodynamic action on HepG2 cells was significantly higher than those of other treatments including ultrasound alone, hypocrellin B alone and sham treatment. Flow cytometry showed that hypocrellin B-induced sonodynamic action markedly enhanced the apoptotic rate of HepG2 cells. Increased ROS was observed in HepG2 cells after being treated with hypocrellin B-mediated sonodynamic action.
Conclusions:
Our data demonstrated that hypocrellin B-mediated sonodynamic action remarkably induced apoptosis of HepG2 cells, suggesting that apoptosis is an important mechanism of cell death induced by hypocrellin B-mediated SDT.
