Light-induced cytotoxicity in cells utilizing an automated well plate illuminator

Delivering therapeutic drug molecules to the target site and releasing the cargo site-specifically is of major interest in biomedicine. To carry and release drugs to specific target tissues, different nanotechnology approaches have been utilized. These include light-sensitive liposomal carriers, which have been engineered to release cargo from their aqueous cores when illuminated by certain wavelengths of laser light. To study drug release parameters in vitro, Modulight has designed and automated biomedical illumination system ML8500. ML8500 can be tailored to house up to eight Modulight semiconductor lasers ranging from 400nm-2000nm selected based on the optical properties of dyes and molecules of interest. The illumination system can be configured for different well plate types and includes environmental control of temperature and CO2 to provide stable conditions for the studied cell types. Utilizing the ML8500 illumination system, the safety of laser light illumination for the liposomal drug delivery was investigated in retinal pigment epithelial (ARPE-19) cell line.