Sonoporation of erythrocytes by lithotripter shockwaves in vitro

Sonoporation of red blood cells was examined in relation to cavitation-induced hemolysis. FITC-dextran at 580,000 MW was added to suspensions of canine erythrocytes and the mixture was exposed to lithotripter shockwaves. Exposure at 5% or 50% hematocrit in PBS or 50% in plasma yielded not only hemolysis but also FITC-dextran uptake in surviving cells. Hemolysis increased with increasing numbers of shockwaves. The numbers of cells with fluorescent dextran uptake remained roughly constant for 250-1000 shockwaves, but this represented an increasing percentage of the surviving cells. In addition, fluorescent microspheres formed spontaneously in samples with hemolysis. An air bubble was needed in the chamber to obtain substantial effects, implicating the cavitation mechanism. The exposure-response trends could be modeled by simple theory for random interaction of the cells with bubbles.