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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 May 10.
Published in final edited form as: J Control Release. 2013 Feb 26;167(3):221–227. doi: 10.1016/j.jconrel.2013.02.007

Figure 3. 5-ALA prodrug is an effective phototoxic agent in cells in the presence of light.

Figure 3

Figure 3

(A) Human pancreatic cancer cells, MPanc96-FG30 (left) and MPanc96-CTSE (right), treated with 0.1 μM 5-ALA prodrug after light exposure (10 J/cm2). The images show morphological changes in MPanc96-CTSE cells and, to a lesser extent, in the parental MPanc96-FG30 cells, which have limited expression of Cath E. This strongly suggests that the enzymatic activity of Cath E plays a major role in the efficiency of treatment. (B) Viability of MPanc-FG30 and MPanc96-CTSE cells treated with light dose of 2.5 J/cm2 with various concentrations (0.1, 0.5, 1, and 5 μM) of 5-ALA prodrug. Quantitation of cell viability demonstrated that the PDT was more highly phototoxic in MPanc96-CTSE, compared to Mpanc-FG30, cells under all conditions. (C) Viability of MPanc96-CTSE cells treated with a range of light doses (2.5, 5, 10, and 15 J/cm2) at various concentrations (0.1, 0.5, 1, and 5 μM) of 5-ALA prodrug. Quantitation of cell viability illustrated that the phototoxic effect of PDT on the cells increased with increasing concentration of 5-ALA prodrug and light dose.