Dynamics of Sonoporation Correlated with Acoustic Cavitation Activities
Yun Zhou 1, Jianmin Cui 2 and Cheri X Deng 3*
1 Case Western Reserve University
2 Washington University
3 University of Michigan
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: cxdeng{at}umich.edu.
Submitted on November 11, 2007
Revised on December 10, 2007
Accepted on 28 December 2007
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Abstract |
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Sonoporation has been exploited as a promising non-viral strategy for intracellular delivery of drugs and genes. The technique utilizes ultrasound application, often facilitated by the presence of microbubbles, to generate transient, non-specific pores on the cell membrane. However, due to the complexity and transient nature of ultrasound mediated bubble interaction with cells, no direct correlation of sonoporation with bubble activities such as acoustic cavitation, or the ultrasound-driven growth and violent collapse of bubbles, has been obtained. Using Xenopus oocytes as a model system, this study investigated sonoporation in a single cell affected by co-localized cavitation in real time. A confocally- and collinearly-aligned dual-frequency ultrasound transducer assembly was used to generate focused ultrasound pulses (1.5 MHz) to induce focal sonoporation while detecting the broadband cavitation acoustic emission within the same focal zone. Dynamic sonoporation of the single cell was monitored via the transmembrane current of the cell under voltage clamp. Our results demonstrate for the first time the spatio-temporal correlation of sonoporation with cavitation at the single cell level.
Key Words:
cavitation, drug and gene delivery, microbubble, sonoporation, ultrasound, voltage clamp
