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Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Fabrication of Zero Mode Waveguides for High Concentration Single Molecule Microscopy
Published on: May 12, 2020
Continuous wave irradiation at 0.1 terahertz facilitates transmembrane transport of small molecules
Erling Hu1, Qi Zhang1, Sen Shang1
1Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of the Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, Shaanxi, China.
Abstract:
The bioeffects of terahertz (THz) radiation received growing attention because of its influence on the interactions between biomolecules. Our work aimed to investigate the effects of THz irradiation on cell membrane, especially cell membrane permeability. We found that 0.1 THz irradiation promoted the endocytosis of FM4-64-labeled cells and the inhibition of dynamin attenuated but did not fully abolish the THz promoted endocytosis. Moreover, 0.1 THz irradiation also promoted the transmembrane of the rhodamine, as well as the chemical compounds GDC0941 and H89, evidenced by the confocal microscope observation and the western blotting analysis, respectively. These findings demonstrated 0.1 THz irradiation facilitated the transmembrane transport of small molecules by promoting both the cellular endocytosis and the diffusion process. Our study provided direct evidence that THz could affect the cell membrane permeability, broadened the THz affected cellular physiological processes, and implied its potential application in regulating the cell membrane functions.
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