The role of cavitation in the interaction of ultrasound with V79 Chinese hamster cells in vitro.

Suspensions of V79 cells have been irradiated with 1 MHz ultrasound at spatial average intensities up to 0.25 W cm-2. The effects seen are described in this paper. Acoustic emissions at the first subharmonic of the drive frequency (0.5 MHz) were monitored during irradiation. Subharmonic emission is characteristic of cavitation activity within the sample. A strong correlation was found between cell damage and a measure of the total emitted subharmonic energy. Damage was assayed in terms of cell lysis, the ability of the cells to take up the vital dye trypan blue and loss of reproductive integrity. It is concluded from these data that cavitation can play an important part in the interaction of ultrasound with biological systems in vitro, and that subharmonic emission may provide a non-invasive and somewhat quantitative means of predicting the magnitude of such interactions.