Laser Microbeams for Partial Cell Irradiation

Abstract

Publisher Summary Lasers have been used in microbeam irradiation for almost 10 years. In that short period of time, they have been applied to the investigation of a wide variety of organisms and cell types. Many of the problems of the laser microbeam remain unsolved; of them the most important is dosimetry. Dosimetric measurements are often difficult to obtain and therefore are frequently neglected. The number of laser wavelengths available is no longer a severe limitation. This chapter considers the laser microbeam in the classic sense: as a device for partial cell irradiation (or partial organism irradiation) for the purpose of studying cell function and radiosensitivity. The unique properties of the laser, however, permit its incorporation into several microbeam-like systems designed for analytical studies. The laser has contributed considerably to the classic technique of partial cell irradiation, augmenting the existing procedures developed with ionizing and classic UV sources. In addition, the use of lasers in various analytical devices contributes to the knowledge of biological systems.