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Purpose:
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The study of biological effects of low-energy ultrasound and its applications is a rapidly expanding research area. Low
energy ultrasound could be used as anti-tumoral therapy with or without the pharmacological combination even if the
second situation has been scarcely investigated up to now. Very little information is available about the ultrasound
effects on healthy red blood cells and lymphocytes. Here, we evaluated. in vitro. the bio-effects of the low-energy
ultrasounds on red blood cells and PBMCs isolated from healthy donors as well as on two myeloid leukemia cell lines
(OCI-AML-3 and MOLM-13) and lymphoblastic leukemia T-cell line (Jurkat). We analyzed different parameters, such as
vitality, proliferation, mitochondrial membrane potential, and activation of specific markers on healthy lymphocytes as
well as the vitality of RBCs and leukemia cell lines. Our data show that ultrasound treatment induces typical apoptotic
alterations in leukemia cells, including alterations of mitochondrial membrane potential, loss of phosphatidylserine
asymmetry, morphological changes, and production of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Overall, we demonstrated that
lymphocytes vitality, proliferation/activation and cytotoxic functions are fully preserved after ultrasound treatment, on
the contrary leukemia cell lines undergo apoptosis and stop to proliferate suggesting a possible approach for cancer
therapy in blood malignancies.
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