Study: Ultrasound may improve viability of implanted soft tissues
Indirect low-intensity ultrasound (LIUS) stimulation may enhance muscle cell (C2C12) proliferation, metabolic activity and differentiation of cells and tissues. As a result, the method may increase survival of implanted soft tissue, said a study published online May 27 in the Journal of Tissue Engineering.
Hyoungshin Park, PhD, of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation in the department of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues explained that LIUS could benefit tissue grafts during immediate post-implantation, as the blood supply that the implanted tissue receives is high during this period and the treatment has been shown to increase mass transport.
The researchers sought to investigate the effects of LIUS stimulation on dye diffusion, proliferation, metabolism and tropomyosin expression of C2C12 cells, and on tissue viability and gene expression of human adipose tissue organoids by way of adipose cells cultured from tissues from human abdominoplasty operations as well as mouse muscle cells. The test cells were treated with LIUS at 30mW/cm2 for short bursts of three or ten minutes over the course of six days.
After treatment, the cells were assessed for the number of cells produced, metabolism, viability and any signs of damage, and were compared to the control cells that were not treated, explained the authors.
According to Park and colleagues, the C2C12 muscle cells stimulated with LIUS presented with greater cell numbers and better viability when compared to the control C2C12 cells. The cultured adipose cells in an in vitro organ culture model also showed “significantly increased” metabolic activity and presented with less necrosis factor-alpha expression, a marker for tissue damage, than the tissue not treated with LIUS.
While this data marks the first evidence that LIUS can influence the viability of the cultured adipose cells, the authors noted that implementation of LIUS stimulation could be a useful modality for improving graft survival in vivo.
However, the authors warned: “It will be important to test for in vivo effects of LIUS on damaged soft tissue to assess whether our in vitro results can be confirmed in vivo.” They concluded that further studies are needed in order to “optimize intensity, frequency and duty cycle of the LIUS depending on cell and tissue types.”
Hyoungshin Park, PhD, of the Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation in the department of surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues explained that LIUS could benefit tissue grafts during immediate post-implantation, as the blood supply that the implanted tissue receives is high during this period and the treatment has been shown to increase mass transport.
The researchers sought to investigate the effects of LIUS stimulation on dye diffusion, proliferation, metabolism and tropomyosin expression of C2C12 cells, and on tissue viability and gene expression of human adipose tissue organoids by way of adipose cells cultured from tissues from human abdominoplasty operations as well as mouse muscle cells. The test cells were treated with LIUS at 30mW/cm2 for short bursts of three or ten minutes over the course of six days.
After treatment, the cells were assessed for the number of cells produced, metabolism, viability and any signs of damage, and were compared to the control cells that were not treated, explained the authors.
According to Park and colleagues, the C2C12 muscle cells stimulated with LIUS presented with greater cell numbers and better viability when compared to the control C2C12 cells. The cultured adipose cells in an in vitro organ culture model also showed “significantly increased” metabolic activity and presented with less necrosis factor-alpha expression, a marker for tissue damage, than the tissue not treated with LIUS.
While this data marks the first evidence that LIUS can influence the viability of the cultured adipose cells, the authors noted that implementation of LIUS stimulation could be a useful modality for improving graft survival in vivo.
However, the authors warned: “It will be important to test for in vivo effects of LIUS on damaged soft tissue to assess whether our in vitro results can be confirmed in vivo.” They concluded that further studies are needed in order to “optimize intensity, frequency and duty cycle of the LIUS depending on cell and tissue types.”