Biophysics of Ultrasound and Cell Interactions

虽然超声波在过去的50年里一直被使用，但人们对细胞和亚细胞成分对超声波暴露的反应仍然知之甚少。这个基础科学项目将探索细胞膜的基本和复杂的生物成分是如何在微泡存在和缺失的情况下对超声波暴露做出反应的，微泡会一起破坏和破坏细胞。我们将使用低频（5-10 MHz）、中频（10-20 MHz）和高频（20-80 MHz）超声进行本研究。

Although ultrasound has been used for the past fifty years it still remains poorly understood how cells and subcellular constituents react to ultrasound exposure. This fundamental basic science program will probe how fundamental and complex biological components of cell membranes react to ultrasound exposure in the absence and presence of microbubbles which can damage and destroy cells together. We will use low-frequency (5-10 MHz), mid-frequency (10-20 MHz) and high-frequency (20-80 MHz) ultrasound for this research. In this research program we will explore how materials inside cells react to ultrasound exposure through microbubble-induced effects on cell membranes. We will use cell biology techniques with human cells and gene expression profiling to better understand what features inside cells are responsible for cell responses to ultrasound. Acoustic parameters that will be varied will include measurements will include ultrasound frequency, ultrasound pressure, ultrasound pulse duration and microbubble concentration. We will study biological specimens consisting of a number of human cell types and their responses to ultrasound and ultrasound-mediated microbubble stimulation using standard measures of biological configuration including light and electron-microscopy combined with image analyses of biological ultrastructure to correlate biological features to ultrasound exposure. We will also use gene expression methodology to study the induction of related genetic pathways and second messages that may be involved in relevant signal transduction and cell membrane repair. Our research program will take an organized approach beginning first with cell membrane components, then their more complex organizations and then their importance in cell signalling pathways. At the end of this research program we hope to be able to comprehend how cellular features, and molecular interactions contribute to biological responses to ultrasound-mediated stimulation. The novelty of this research program is that it combines modern biological techniques not available when ultrasound was initially developed and modern highly-sensitive ultrasound equipment and microbubble-technology capable of delivering ultrasound. It also addresses an aspect of ultrasound response which is not well understood. The significance of this research is that it will provide a fundamental basis for understanding responses to ultrasound from biological specimens.