Determination of the dose–depth distribution of proton beam using resazurin assay in vitro and diode laser-induced fluorescence detection

Abstract

In this study the dose–depth distribution pattern of proton beams was investigated by inactivation of human cells exposed to high-LET (linear energy transfer) protons. The proton beams accelerated up to 45 MeV were horizontally extracted from the cyclotron, and were delivered to the cells acutely through a home made prototype over a range of physical depths (in the form of a variable water column). The biological systems used here were two in vitro cell lines, including human embryonic kidney cells (HEK 293), and human breast adenocarcinoma cell line (MCF-7). Cells were exposed to unmodulated proton beam radiation at a dose of 50 Gy similar to that used in therapy. Resazurin metabolism assay was investigated for measurement of cell response to irradiation as a simple and non-destructive assay. In the resazurin reduction test the non-fluorescent probe dye is reduced to pink and highly fluorescent resorufin. The dose–depth distribution of proton beam obtained based on the highly sensitive laser-induced fluorometric determination of resorufin was found to coincide well with the data collected using conventional film based dosimetry. The resazurin method yielded data comparable with the optical micrographs of the irradiated cells, showing the least cell survival at the measured Bragg-peak position of 10 mm. In addition, fused silica capillary was used as a sample container to increase the probability for irradiated laser beam to probe and excite resorufin in small sample volume of the capillary. The developed method has the potential to serve as a non-destructive, sample-thrifty, and time saving tool to realize more realistic, practical dose–depth distribution of proton beam compared to conventional in vitro cell viability assessment techniques.