A Novel 785-nm Laser Diode-Based System for Standardization of Cell Culture Irradiation

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop a novel device that concatenates alignment of infrared lasers and parallel procedure of irradiation. The purpose of this is to seek standardization of in vitro cell irradiation, which allows analysis and credible comparisons between outcomes of different experiments. Background data: Experimental data obtained from infrared laser therapies have been strongly dependent upon the irradiation setup. Although further optical alignment is difficult to achieve, in contact irradiation it usually occurs. Moreover, these methods eventually use laser in a serial procedure, extending the time to irradiate experimental samples. Methods: A LASERTable (LT) device was designed to provide similar infrared laser irradiation in 12 wells of a 24 well test plate. It irradiated each well by expanding the laser beam until it covers the well bottom, as occurs with unexpanded irradiation. To evaluate the effectiveness of this device, the spatial distribution of radiation was measured, and the heating of plain culture medium was monitored during the LT operation. The irradiation of LT (up to 25J/cm(2) - 20mW/cm(2); 1.250sec) was assessed on odontoblast-like cells adhered to the bottom of wells containing 1mL of plain culture medium. Cell morphology and metabolism were also evaluated. Results: Irradiation with LT presented a Gaussian-like profile when the culture medium was not heated >1 degrees C. It was also observed that the LT made it 10 times faster to perform the experiment than did serial laser irradiation. In addition, the data of this study revealed that the odontoblast-like cells exposed to low-level laser therapy (LLLT) using the LT presented higher metabolism and normal morphology. Conclusions: The experimental LASERTable assessed in this study provided parameters for standardization of infrared cell irradiation, minimizing the time spent to irradiate all samples. Therefore, this device is a helpful tool that can be effectively used to evaluate experimental LLLT protocols.