Electronics Research Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
Research Group of Medical Imaging, Physics and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland.
Sci Rep. 2017 Jun 21;7(1):3991. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-04293-5.
Research is ongoing to develop drug therapies to manage osteoarthritis (OA) and articular cartilage (AC) injuries. However, means to deliver drug to localized AC lesions are highly limited and not clinically available. This study investigates the capability of laser ultrasound (laser-induced plasma sound source) to deliver agents (methylene blue, MB, in PBS) into bovine AC. Treatment samples (n = 10) were immersed in MB solution simultaneously with LU exposure, while adjacent control 1 tissue (n = 10) was pre-treated with LU followed by immersion in MB and adjacent control 2 tissue (n = 10) was only immersed in MB. AC exposed (n = 22) or not exposed (n = 27) to LU were characterized for anomalies in structure, composition, viability or RNA expression. Optically detected MB content was significantly (p < 0.01) higher in treatment samples up to a depth of 500 µm from AC surface as compared to controls. No major unwanted short-term effects on AC structure, proteoglycan or collagen contents, chondrocyte viability or RNA expression levels were detected. In conclusion, LU can deliver agents into AC without major short-term concerns on safety. LU could reveal new strategies for the development of localized drug therapies in AC.
研究正在进行中，以开发药物治疗方法来治疗骨关节炎（OA）和关节软骨（AC）损伤。然而，将药物递送到局部 AC 病变的方法非常有限，并且在临床上不可用。本研究调查了激光超声（激光诱导等离子声源）将药物（亚甲蓝，MB，在 PBS 中）递送到牛 AC 的能力。处理样品（n = 10）与 LU 暴露同时浸入 MB 溶液中，而相邻的对照 1 组织（n = 10）先用 LU 预处理，然后浸入 MB 中，相邻的对照 2 组织（n = 10）仅浸入 MB 中。对暴露于 LU（n = 22）或未暴露于 LU（n = 27）的 AC 进行结构、组成、活力或 RNA 表达异常的特征分析。与对照相比，处理样品中距 AC 表面 500 µm 深度内的光学检测到的 MB 含量明显更高（p < 0.01）。未检测到 AC 结构、糖胺聚糖或胶原蛋白含量、软骨细胞活力或 RNA 表达水平的主要短期不良反应。总之，LU 可以将药物递送到 AC 中，而不会对安全性产生重大短期影响。LU 可能为开发 AC 中的局部药物治疗提供新策略。
