Elimination of leukemic cells by laser photodynamic therapy

We studied the effects of 514-nm laser light-induced merocyanine 540 (MC540)-mediated toxicity on both leukemic and normal bone marrow (BM) cells. Acute promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells were incubated with MC540 (20 micrograms/ml) and exposed to 93.6 J/cm2 irradiation at a 514-nm wavelength. Normal bone marrow cells were treated under similar conditions. At this dose, 99.9999% of the leukemic cells were killed while 55% of the BM cell survived. Of the granulocyte-macrophage colony-forming cells (CFU-GM), 27% also survived this treatment. Photosensitization of a mixture of irradiated BM cells mixed with an equal number of nonirradiated HL-60 cell did not interfere with the killing of HL-60 cells. There was no significant reduction in the viability of cells when exposed to the laser light alone. In summary, laser light-induced photosensitization with MC540 has a selective cytotoxicity to leukemic cells; therefore, this procedure may be useful for purging neoplastic cells from autologous BM.