Polymerization of monomeric actin into filaments has pivotal roles in cell motility, growth, differentiation, and gene expression. Therefore, techniques of manipulating actin polymerization, including actin-binding chemicals, have been developed for understanding and regulating multiple biological functions. Here, we demonstrate that irradiation with terahertz (THz) waves is a novel method of modulating actin polymerization. When actin polymerization reaction is performed under irradiation with 0.46 THz waves generated by a Gyrotron, actin polymerization was observed to be activated by monitoring the fluorescence of pyrene actin fluorophores. We also observed the number of actin filaments under a fluorescence microscope using the polymerized actin probe SiR-actin. The number of actin filaments was increased by 3.5-fold after THz irradiation for 20 min. When the THz irradiation was applied to a steady-state actin solution, in which elongation and depolymerization of actin filaments were equilibrated, increased actin polymerization was observed, suggesting that the THz irradiation activates actin polymerization, at least in the elongation process. These results suggest that THz waves could be applied for manipulating biomolecules and cells.
The effect of terahertz (THz) radiation on deep tissues of human body has been considered negligible due to strong absorption by water molecules. However, we observed that the energy of tHz pulses transmits a millimeter thick in the aqueous solution, possibly as a shockwave, and demolishes actin filaments. Collapse of actin filament induced by THz irradiation was also observed in the living cells under an aqueous medium. We also confirmed that the viability of the cell was not affected under the exposure of tHz pulses. the potential of tHz waves as an invasive method to alter protein structure in the living cells is demonstrated.
The effect of terahertz (THz) radiation on deep tissues of human body has been considered negligible due to strong absorption by water molecules. However, we observed that the energy of THz pulses transmits a millimeter thick in the aqueous solution, possibly as a shockwave, and demolishes actin filaments. Collapse of actin filament induced by THz irradiation was also observed in the living cells under an aqueous medium. We also confirmed that the viability of the cell was not affected under the exposure of THz pulses. The potential of THz waves as an invasive method to alter protein structure in the living cells is demonstrated. One sentence summary:The energy of the THz wave propagates several millimeters into an aqueous medium and demolishes actin filaments via shockwaves. MAIN TEXTDue to the development of terahertz (THz) light sources, various and medical applications have been proposed in this decades. Also, toxicity of THz radiation for human health has attracted keen interest among researchers working in this frequency region (1). Two projects, the European THz-BRIDGE and the International EMF project in the SCENIHR (2), summarize recent studies about THz radiation effects for human body. For example, non-thermal impacts on DNA stability (3-5) was induced by THz wave, which could cause chromosomal aberrations in human lymphocytes (6). The transcriptional activation of wound-responsive genes in mouse skin (7) and DNA damage in an artificial human 3D skin tissue model (8) have also been demonstrated. Most of those studies focus on epithelial and corneal cell lines, because THz photons are totally absorbed at the surface of the tissues due to the intense absorbance of liquid water in this frequency region. However, if the THz radiation is converted to the other type of energy flow which can propagate into water, irradiation of THz wave may cause damage inside the tissues. In fact, the THz photon energy is once absorbed on the body surface, and converted to the thermal and mechanical energies. We recently observed that THz pulses generate shockwaves at the surface of liquid water (9). The
eggshells play a number of important roles in the avian and reptile kingdom: protection of internal contents and as a major source of minerals for developing embryos. However, when researching these respective roles, eggshell thickness measurement remains a bottleneck due to the lack of a non-destructive measurement techniques. As a result, many avian and reptile research protocols omit consideration of eggshell thickness bias on egg or embryo growth and development. Here, we validate a non-destructive method to estimate eggshell thickness based on terahertz (THz) reflectance spectroscopy using chicken white coloured eggs. Since terahertz waves are reflected from outer aireggshell interface, as well as the inner eggshell-membrane boundary, the resulting interference signals depend on eggshell thickness. Thus, it is possible to estimate shell thickness from the oscillation distance in frequency-domain. A linear regression-based prediction model for non-destructive eggshell thickness measurement was developed, which had a coefficient of determination (R 2) of 0.93, RMSEP of 0.009, RPD of 3.45 and RER 13.67. This model can estimate eggshell thickness to a resolution of less than 10 μm. This method has the potential to expand the protocols in the field of avian and reptile research, as well as be applied to industrial grading of eggs.
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