Sommer Andrei P, Hassinen Harri I, Kajander E Olavi
Department of Biomaterials/ENSOMA Laboratory, Central Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
J Clin Laser Med Surg. 2002 Oct;20(5):241-4. doi: 10.1089/10445470260420731.
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of light on nanobacteria.
Since their first description in literature, it is not clear whether the nanoparticles called "nanobacteria" are alive or not. The 80-1,000-nm-sized spherical particles are protected by a crystalline carbonate apatite shell and are culturable in cell culture media. Present in mammalians, including humans, nanobacteria seem to cause diseases related to biomineralization processes. Mesoscopic structures found on Martian meteorites and terrestrial rocks indicated that nanobacteria-like biological objects forming apatite, a material fairly transparent to visible light, could have been present on the primitive Earth during an era with the sun as the principal terrestrial energy source.
To evaluate possible biomedical effects of therapeutically relevant irradiation sources on nanobacteria, we irradiated nanobacteria cultures with polarized light and laser-light at low, nonthermal energy density levels.
Our observations indicated that nanobacteria are alive. Polarized white light was found to clearly accelerate their replication in vitro, resulting in significant dose-dependent increases in the turbidity of the cultures, compared to nonirradiated controls. Laser irradiation did not affect their replication.
The possibility that primordial and present nanobacteria could have been not only exposed to, but actively harvested, solar irradiation for their own development suggests itself. Considering that there exists no published material on the action of light on nanobacteria, the reported effects are expected to have an impact on modeling biomineralization processes, associated photoreceptor mechanisms, and astrobiological and evolutionary theories-on Earth and in space.
本研究旨在探究光对纳米细菌的影响。
自首次在文献中被描述以来，所谓的“纳米细菌”这种纳米颗粒是否具有生命尚不明确。这种直径为80至1000纳米的球形颗粒被一层结晶碳酸磷灰石外壳所保护，并且能够在细胞培养基中培养。纳米细菌存在于包括人类在内的哺乳动物体内，似乎会引发与生物矿化过程相关的疾病。在火星陨石和地球岩石上发现的介观结构表明，在以太阳为主要地球能源的时代，地球上可能存在形成磷灰石（一种对可见光相当透明的物质）的类似纳米细菌的生物物体。
为了评估具有治疗意义的辐照源对纳米细菌可能产生的生物医学影响，我们用偏振光和低能量密度、非热水平的激光照射纳米细菌培养物。
我们的观察表明纳米细菌具有生命。与未辐照的对照组相比，发现偏振白光能明显加速其在体外的复制，导致培养物的浊度出现显著的剂量依赖性增加。激光照射对其复制没有影响。
原始的和现存的纳米细菌不仅可能暴露于太阳辐射，而且可能为自身发育而主动利用太阳辐射，这种可能性是存在的。鉴于目前尚无关于光对纳米细菌作用的已发表材料，所报道的这些影响预计将对生物矿化过程建模、相关光感受器机制以及地球和太空的天体生物学和进化理论产生影响。
