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Tapered glass capillary optics was utilized to produce MeV ion microbeams at the RIKEN Pelletron facility. A microbeam of 3 MeV He ions was used to irradiate HeLa cells and demonstrated an ion track consisting of double strand break points in the cell nucleus. A new microbeam line was developed with profile measurements of 2.8 MeV H+ microbeams in the atmosphere, using image recognition and knife-edge methods. After the suppression of the halo component in the microbeam, a smaller beam size was measured to be approximately 40 μm for the irradiation distance of 1 mm, which satisfied requirements of the planned applications.

This study was aimed to investigate the effect of down-regulating the CXC chemokine receptor-4 (CXCR4) expression on cell proliferation, invasion and migration of human ovarian cancer cell line SW626. The CXCR4 specific short hairpin RNA (shRNA) plasmid vector was constructed and then transfected into the SW626 cells. The expression of CXCR4 mRNA and protein was detected by real-time RT-PCR and western blot respectively. Cell proliferation was detected by 3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT). Cell invasion and migration was assayed in Biocoat Matrigel invasion chambers. The expression level of CXCR4 in SW626 cell transfected with CXCR4-siRNA was inhibited, leading to significant decrease in SW626 cell proliferation, invasion and migration. We conclude that CXCR4 is essential for tumor cell proliferation and invasion. The CXCR4 molecule is a potential therapeutic target to control ovarian cancer cell growth or metastasis.

An ohmic-heating laser ion source with a thin ionizer of thickness of 30 μm has been developed for the TIARA-ISOL. It can form an electric field of 4–5 V/cm inside the ionizer. The properties of the laser ion source were tested on- and off-line with aluminum isotopes. The FWHM of the time distribution of the bunched photoions from the ion source was about 4 μs for 27Al. In on-line experiment, a photoionization efficiency of about 0.1% for 25Al was obtained.

A charge-exchange cell based on pulsed-laser ablation has been developed and applied to collinear resonance ionization spectroscopy. A fast lithium ion beam has been neutralized in the charge-exchange cell and resonance ionization spectra of the 2s2S1/2−2p2P1/2,3/20 transitions of lithium have been successfully observed. The charge-exchange efficiency of the cell is discussed.