Evaluation of the silicon phthalocyanine pc 4 for photodynamic bone marrow purging

The silicon phthalocyanine Pc 4 was tested as a photosensitizer for the selective photoinactivation of malignant cells in bone marrow transplantation samples. Using a murine model system, incubation of 1.5×107 cells/mL with 15 nM Pc 4 followed by exposure to red light (λ>600 nm, fluence of 18 J/cm2) was shown to result in a greater than 6 log10 reduction of the clonogenic growth for the murine cell lines ABE-8.1/2, BC3A and L1210. The clonogenic growth of WEHI-3 and P815 cells was reduced by more than 5 log10 and more than 3 log10, respectively. Late murine hematopoietic progenitor cells were less sensitive than cancer cells; the surviving fractions were 0.084 for the colony forming unit, megakaryocyte (CFU-Mk); 0.038 for the colony forming unit, granulocyte macrophage (CFU-GM); 0.0018 for the colony forming unit, mix (CFU-mix) and <0.003 for burst forming units, erythroid (BFU-E). Early hematopoietic progenitor cells, assayed by the in vitro cobble stone area forming cell assay, were not affected by the photodynamic treatment. Likewise, in vivo assays of early hematopoietic progenitor cells showed no reduction of their ability to repopulate the bone marrow. Irradiation of the samples following incubation of 1.5×106 cells/mL with Pc 4 resulted in increased photosensitivity of all cell types, including the early and late hematopoietic progenitor cells. Flow cytometric analysis of Pc 4 uptake by the cells revealed that the increased photosensitivity could be traced to increased Pc 4 uptake; however, Pc 4 uptake among cell types did not correlate with photosensitivity. When mixed with bone marrow (BM) cells, Pc 4 uptake in the cell lines increased as the fraction of BM increased from 0.5 to 0.95. These observations suggest that Pc 4 may be a suitable photosensitizer for bone marrow purging. © 1998 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.