Abstract
Much biomedical research focuses on the effects of UV light on human cells. UV light sources are a prerequisite for such research. This paper presents the design and achieved performance of a UVA (Ultraviolet A: 320–400 nm) and a UVB (Ultraviolet B: 290–320 nm) LED-based lamp suitable for use in bioassays, as well as inside an incubator. Numerical simulations were used to optimise the number, layout and output power of LEDs to achieve good irradiance homogeneity while maintaining low costs. Design was optimised for the efficient transfer of generated heat away from the irradiated samples through the heatsink at the back of the lamps. The average irradiance of the target surface by the UVA lamp was 70.1 W/m2 with a maximum deviation of 4.9%, and the average irradiance by the UVB lamp was 3.1 W/m2 with a maximum deviation of 4.8%. With the UVA and UVB lamps, the temperature of samples undergoing irradiation in the incubator rises from 37 to 42 °C within 40 and 67 min, respectively. This by far exceeds the required UV irradiation time in most cases. Tests on Jurkat and HEK-293 cell cultures confirmed the suitability of our lamps for biomedical research.
Highlights
Focusing on the field of medicine and human health, ultraviolet light (UV) is the most prominent and universal environmental human carcinogen
There are many known positive effects and uses of UV light, including its therapeutic effects and further applications in medicine, such as its use in air ventilation systems in hospitals, in air/water purification, in disinfection in surgery, and much more [7,8]
We demonstrate the development and use of UVA and UVB light emitting diodes (LEDs)-based light sources designed for cell culture research inside an incubator
Summary
Focusing on the field of medicine and human health, ultraviolet light (UV) is the most prominent and universal environmental human carcinogen. Other unwanted UV effects include sunburn, immunosuppression, eye damage and skin ageing [2]. There are many known positive effects and uses of UV light, including its therapeutic effects (e.g., in treating infants suffering from jaundice [3]; in treating skin, sleep, mood and seasonal affective disorders [4]; in treating vitamin D deficiency [5]; wound healing [6]) and further applications in medicine, such as its use in air ventilation systems in hospitals, in air/water purification, in disinfection in surgery, and much more [7,8]. Since UV light has such a vast variety of effects on the human body, a significant amount of biomedical research focuses on it. Exposing in vitro cell cultures of selected tissue origin to UV radiation is a very convenient option for researching human body responses to UV irradiation
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