Abstract
The present study evaluates the effects of photodynamic therapy (PDT) with PhotofrinA (R) using human liver cancer cells (HepG2) as an experimental model. We optimized the different PDT parameters, e.g. (time of incubation, optimal dose of light and drug concentration), cytotoxicity, phototoxicity, and cellular viability of the HepG2 cells has also been investigated in this experimental work. The effect of light on the viability of cells without the photosensitizer was examined firstly, HepG2 cell line was irradiated with red light (a diode laser, lambda = 635 nm). The toxicity of the photosensitizer in the absence of light in current cell line was investigated secondly, PhotofrinA (R) has been used as photosensitizing agent. Optimal dose of light along with suitable concentration of PhotofrinA (R) were traced into HepG2 cell line, by means of spectrophotometric measurement. Cells viability was determined by means of neutral red assay (NRA). Finally, it was observed that no toxic effects with the absence of light, and no significant photodamage effect on the cells without the presence of photosensitizer were found, when studied independently. Our results showed that light doses of 100 J/cm(2) gives effective PDT outcome for HepG2 cell line at photosensitizer concentration of 100 mu g/ml.