The influence of ultrasound-induced microbubble cavitation on the viability, migration and cell cycle distribution of melanoma cells

Abstract

Melanoma could be extremely lethal due to its high invasiveness and rapid proliferation, which causes thousands of deaths worldwide every year. Because of the resistance of melanoma to chemo/radio/immunotherapy, effective treatment of melanoma remains a clinically unsolved puzzle. Some efforts have been made to utilize ultrasound (US) to control the migration of melanoma cells, but the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Here, the impact of US-induced microbubble (MB) cavitation on the migration and cell cycle arrest of A375 melanoma cells was studied. To quantitatively explore the relationship between US-activated MB activity and the changes of A375 cellular response, inertial cavitation dose (ICD) was evaluated at varied acoustic driving pressures and MB concentrations. The pool data results showed that A375 cells’ migrating capacity slightly fluctuated till ICD reached a certain threshold (3000 V × μs) and declined rapidly afterwards as the ICD further increased. Similar trend was observed in terms of the changes of G1-phase cell ratio. These findings suggested that, with appropriately selected parameters, MB-mediated cavitation can be effectively utilized to suppress the migration of A375 cells by reducing the proportion of cells arrested in G1 phase.