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Sonoporation has been widely accepted as a significant tool for gene delivery as well as some bio-effects like hemolysis, bringing in high demands of looking into its underlying mechanism. A two-dimensional (2D) boundary element method (BEM) model was developed to investigate microbubble-cell interaction, especially the morphological and mechanical characteristics around the close-to-bubble point (CP) on cell membrane. Based on time evolution analysis of sonoporation, detailed information was extracted from the model for analysis, including volume expansion ratio of the bubble, areal expansion ratio of the cell, jet velocity and CP displacement. Parametric studies were carried out, revealing the influence of different ultrasound parameters ( i.e. , driving frequency and acoustic pressure) and geometrical configurations ( i.e. , bubble-cell distance and initial bubble radius). This model could become a powerful tool not only for understanding bubble-cell interactions, but also for optimizing the strategy of sonoporation, such that it could be safer and of higher efficiency for biological and medical studies especially in clinics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Melanoma could be extremely lethal due to its high invasiveness and rapid proliferation, which causes thousands of deaths worldwide every year. Because of the resistance of melanoma to chemo/radio/immunotherapy, effective treatment of melanoma remains a clinically unsolved puzzle. Some efforts have been made to utilize ultrasound (US) to control the migration of melanoma cells, but the underlying mechanism is still unclear. Here, the impact of US-induced microbubble (MB) cavitation on the migration and cell cycle arrest of A375 melanoma cells was studied. To quantitatively explore the relationship between US-activated MB activity and the changes of A375 cellular response, inertial cavitation dose (ICD) was evaluated at varied acoustic driving pressures and MB concentrations. The pool data results showed that A375 cells' migrating capacity slightly fluctuated till ICD reached a certain threshold (3000 V × μs) and declined rapidly afterwards as the ICD further increased. Similar trend was observed in terms of the changes of G1-phase cell ratio. These findings suggested that, with appropriately selected parameters, MB-mediated cavitation can be effectively utilized to suppress the migration of A375 cells by reducing the proportion of cells arrested in G1 phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]