為了在疾病早期階段或者接受治療后能夠檢測到病人體內(nèi)存在的癌細胞，科學(xué)家們已經(jīng)開發(fā)出很多種技術(shù)和方法,。但是這些技術(shù)的一個主要限制因素就是當只有少數(shù)癌細胞存在時,，它們就無法檢測到。
脈沖光聲技術(shù)(pulsed photoacoustic technique)將光學(xué)斷層成像(optical tomography)的高光學(xué)對比度和超聲波的高分辨率特征結(jié)合在一起。如今，來自美國密蘇里大學(xué)哥倫比亞分校(University of Missouri-Columbia)和墨西哥瓜納華托大學(xué)(Universidad de Guanajuato)的研究人員合作完成的一項研究表明利用脈沖光聲技術(shù)就能夠在體外檢測到人體內(nèi)存在的少量癌細胞,。因為大多數(shù)癌細胞通常難以捕捉，所以研究人員使用一種光聲增強劑(photoacoustic enhancer)來檢測它們,。
研究人員說,，開發(fā)新的檢測方法是必需的。如今他們能夠合適地使用脈沖光聲技術(shù)來識別人體血液或組織樣品中存在的不同類型癌細胞,。相關(guān)研究結(jié)果于2012年3月19日發(fā)表在AIP Advances期刊上,。(生物谷：towersimper編譯)
doi:10.1063/1.3697852
PMC:
PMID:
An experimental and theoretical approach to the study of the photoacoustic signal produced by cancer cells
Rafael Pérez Solano, Francisco I. Ramirez-Perez, Jorge A. Castorena-Gonzalez, Edgar Alvarado Anell, Gerardo Gutiérrez-Juárez, and Luis Polo-Parada
The distinctive spectral absorption characteristics of cancer cells make photoacoustic techniques useful for detection in vitro and in vivo. Here we report on our evaluation of the photoacoustic signal produced by a series of monolayers of different cell lines in vitro. Only the melanoma cell line HS936 produced a detectable photoacoustic signal in which amplitude was dependent on the number of cells. This finding appears to be related to the amount of melanin available in these cells. Other cell lines (i.e. HL60, SK-Mel-1, T47D, Hela, HT29 and PC12) exhibited values similar to a precursor of melanin (tyrosinase), but failed to produce sufficient melanin to generate a photoacoustic signal that could be distinguished from background noise. To better understand this phenomenon, we determined a formula for the time-domain photoacoustic wave equation for a monolayer of cells in a non-viscous fluid on the thermoelastic regime. The theoretical results showed that the amplitude and profile of the photoacoustic signal generated by a cell monolayer depended upon the number and distribution of the cells and the location of the point of detection. These findings help to provide a better understanding of the factors involved in the generation of a photoacoustic signal produced by different cells in vitro and in vivo.
