Ultrasound-Stimulated Microbubbles Enhance Radiation-Induced Cell Killing

Recent in vivo studies using ultrasound-stimulated microbubbles as a localized radiosensitizer have had impressive results. While in vitro studies have also obtained similar results using human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC), studies using other cell lines have had varying results. This study was aimed at investigating any increases in radiation-induced cell killing in vitro using two carcinoma lines not previously investigated before (metastatic follicular thyroid carcinoma cells [FTC-238] and non-small cell lung carcinoma cells [NCI-H727]), in addition to HUVEC. Cells were treated using a combination of 1.6% (v/v) microbubbles, ∼90 s of 2-MHz ultrasound (mechanical index = 0.8) and 0-6 Gy of kilovolt or MV X-rays. Cell viability assays obtained 72 h post-treatment were normalized to untreated controls, and analysis of variance was used to determine statistical significance. All cells treated with combined ultrasound-stimulated microbubbles and radiation exhibited decreased normalized survival, with statistically significant effects observed for the NCI-H727 cells. No statistically significant differences in effects were observed using kV compared with MV radiation. Further studies using increased microbubble concentrations may be required to achieve statistically significant results for the FTC-238 and HUVEC lines.