
[Cancer Research 61, 717-724, January 15, 2001]
© 2001 American Association for Cancer Research
Experimental Therapeutics |
A Photobiological and Photophysical-based Study of Phototoxicity of Two Chlorins1
Brian W. Pogue,
Bernhard Ortel,
Norah Chen,
Robert W. Redmond and
Tayyaba Hasan2
Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02114 [B. W. P., B. O., N. C., R. W. R., T. H.]; and Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 [B. W. P.]
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ABSTRACT
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To understand the fundamental determinants of phototoxic efficacy and
absorbed photodynamic dose, the triplet state and photobleaching
quantum yields in living cells, cellular uptake, intracellular
localization, and correlation with cell viability were studied for the
two purpurins tin ethyl etiopurpurin I (SnET2) and tin
octaethylbenzochlorin (SnOEBC) in ovarian cancer cells (OVCAR5).
Although the triplet yields of these two photosensitizers were not
significantly affected by cellular incorporation, the photobleaching
yields were shown to be 3 orders of magnitude higher for cellular-bound
sensitizer than for free or albumin-bound photosensitizer and higher
for SnET2 than for SnOEBC for all of the cases. The
intracellular concentration of SnOEBC was half that of
SnET2 after 3 h- and 24 h-incubation times for both 0.1
µM and 1.0 µM incubation concentrations.
Despite the lower concentrations of SnOEBC, the phototoxicity of the
two photosensitizers was comparable at 1-µM incubation
concentration and was up to 10-fold higher for SnOEBC at the lower
concentration. The subcellular localization established using confocal
microscopy and molecular probes showed that both photosensitizers were
primarily lysosomally localized. SnOEBC, however, had an
extra-lysosomal, mitochondrial localization component. The
photophysical measurements allowed calculation of the intracellular
singlet oxygen production, which indicated that the
photosensitizer-light dose reciprocity was limited by photobleaching
for SnET2 but only minimally for SnOEBC, and this was
confirmed through cell-survival studies. Taken together, these data
indicate that the critical determinant of differences in phototoxicity
between the two molecules was their relative rates of photobleaching
and their subcellular localization. The study points to the importance
of combining photosensitizer uptake and localization with photophysical
measurements in the relevant biological milieu to reasonably interpret
and/or predict photosensitization efficacies.
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INTRODUCTION
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PDT3
for treatment of malignant tissues has been investigated for an
increasing number of applications in recent years. There have been
significant advances in PDT-based treatments both in vivo
and in vitro, and elegant models of photosensitized cell
death have been suggested (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
. Still, the basic
understanding of tissue toxicity, as it relates to fundamental
molecular properties of the PS, remains elusive. The development
and planning of treatment protocols are difficult and have not been as
well established as with chemotherapy or radiation therapies. This is
attributable in part to the higher complexity of PDT with interactions
between PS, light and tissue pathophysiology, which requires an
understanding of the photochemistry of the photosensitizing molecule
(7, 8, 9)
, its localization in cells/tissue, site sensitivity
of the tissue (7
, 10, 11, 12)
, and the physical interactions
of light with PS and tissue (13, 14, 15)
. Most clinical
applications of PDT have been successful after empirical evaluation of
the optimal treatment regimes. This has proven sufficient and will
likely continue to be the main means of developing treatment plans in
the near future. However, dosimetric planning could be aided
significantly by developing a fundamental understanding of the complex
interactions that underlie the phototoxicity. In this vein, it is
important to assess the photophysics and photochemistry of the PS as it
behaves in cells or tissue rather than how it behaves in solution
(16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
, as has been shown in recent studies (20
, 21) . Combining these types of photophysical measurements with
direct subcellular localization studies and intracellular
quantification may be key to understanding how particular molecular PS
behavior and environment affect the biological efficacy in
vitro and in vivo (21)
. In this study, the
pertinent photophysical and photobiological properties of two
second-generation PSs, SnET2 and SnOEBC (Fig. 1)
, which are similar in chemical structure, are measured in cells in
culture and used to compare their relative phototoxicities. Of these,
SnET2 has been used in clinical studies for the
treatment of cutaneous malignancies and is currently in Phase III
clinical trials for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration,
the leading cause of blindness in the elderly in the Western world.
Other compounds from the same family of chemicals are in development
for a variety of other PDT applications. Our interest in the current
report was to establish whether or not results from simple
photophysical and photobiological experiments can be used in the
prediction of absorbed photodynamic dose and thus be a measure of
photodynamic efficiency (21)
. In homogeneous media, the
two compounds have similar photophysical parameters as shown by our
previous studies (22)
and might be expected to be
comparably phototoxic to cells for equivalent cellular uptake.
The biological mechanisms of cellular toxicity have been extensively
studied; however, the connection between photodynamic efficiency and
specific photochemical or photophysical processes are not as well
developed. Current clinical PSs are thought to cause cell death through
production of O2
(1
g) by the quenching of
the triplet state of the excited PS by ground state oxygen. The general
pathway for this process (Type II photosensitization) is shown in Fig. 2
, which illustrates excitation of the ground state by light, followed by
intersystem crossing to the triplet state and then quenching by oxygen
to produce O2
(1
g). If the relative
efficiencies of some of the components of these pathways could be
established in an appropriate environment, we could understand and
perhaps predict the photodynamic dose absorbed and the resulting
phototoxic efficacy of the sensitizer. Methods for measuring yields and
rate constants are well established for PSs in homogeneous medium, but
the ability to measure some of these parameters in heterogeneous
environments such as cells or tissue is more complicated. Detection of
O2
(1
g) produced by the PS
would permit a better interpretation of cell survival data, but this is
a difficult task in vitro (23
, 24)
and perhaps
impossible in vivo because of the expected short lifetime of
O2
(1
g) in biological
environments (25)
. Accepting this, the most informative
parameter to measure is the behavior of the triplet state of the
sensitizer. The triplet state information would also be relevant to the
Type II pathways components of the overall phototoxicity
mechanisms. In this study, the relative triplet state yields of two PSs
are measured in cells using diffuse reflectance-based flash photolysis
(26)
. These parameters were used to interpret the relative
photosensitization potential by calculating the singlet oxygen yield.

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Fig. 2. Energy level diagram of a PS molecule in the
photosensitization process. The molecules are excited from the ground
state, S0, to the excited singlet state, S1,
with a rate proportional to the product of the concentration,
c, molar absorption coefficient, , and
optical fluence rate, . Once in the S1
state, the molecule can relax by fluorescence emission (with quantum
yield, f) or intersystem cross
to the first triplet state, T1
(quantum yield, isc) or be
directly photobleached. From triplet state, the molecule can either
relax by reverse intersystem crossing
( isc'), phosphorescence
emission (quantum yield, p), or be
quenched by interaction with a ground state oxygen molecule,
O2, to produce O2
(1 g). The quantum yield
for singlet oxygen generation,
 , is the ratio of
O2
(1 g) molecules
produced:PS molecule excited. The photobleached state could come
from many paths in this process including directly from
S1 or T1 or from
S0, S1,
T1 in combination with O2
(1 g), or from PS
intermolecular interaction.
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Photobleaching of sensitizers is often overlooked when planning PDT
treatment protocols both in vitro and in vivo.
Studies have demonstrated that the product of the incident light and
drug doses in cells/tissue determines cellular toxicity (25
, 27)
. This basic observation provides a good first-order
understanding of the photosensitization process. More recently, the
lack of this PS-light dose reciprocity has been demonstrated when
factors such as photobleaching are included (28
, 29)
.
Preliminary studies of the photophysical properties of
SnET2 and SnOEBC demonstrated that the most
significant difference between the two sensitizers lay in the quantum
yield of photobleaching, which was nearly 100 times lower for SnOEBC
than for SnET2 (22)
. For this
reason, in this study the bleaching quantum yield of these two
sensitizers was measured in OVCAR5 cells.
Cellular uptake of PSs is generally believed to be a major factor in
determining their cytotoxic ability; therefore, quantification of
cellular content of both PSs was performed. Studies have clearly
demonstrated that different cellular localization sites can affect the
efficacy of photosensitization. Therefore, confocal localization
studies were carried out to characterize the spatial location of the
two PSs examined here. Using a combination of the above information,
calculations of singlet oxygen production as a function of
photobleaching were extended to directly interpret the phototoxicity
observed for SnET2 and SnOEBC in OVCAR5 cell
line.
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MATERIALS AND METHODS
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Chemicals.
The spectroscopic grade solvents DMSO and methanol were purchased from
Fisher Scientific and used without further purification. PBS (x10) was
purchased from Fisher Scientific and diluted to normal saline solution
using deionized water.
SnET2 and SnOEBC were a generous gift from
Miravant Inc. (Santa Barbara, CA). Stock solutions were prepared in
DMSO at 10 and 1 mM and stored at 4°C throughout these
studies. Samples were prepared immediately before use by dilution of
stock solutions with PBS with <0.1% DMSO in the final sample.
Cell Culture.
The NIH human ovarian cancer cell line, OVCAR5, was used in all of the
experiments and was purchased from Dr. Thomas Hamilton, Fox Chase
Cancer Center, Philadelphia, PA. The cells were maintained in RPMI 1640
supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FCS (Life Technologies, Inc.)
in a 5% CO2 atmosphere at 37°C. The PS stock
solutions in DMSO were diluted in media before use. The concentrations
were determined spectrophotometrically, using molar absorption
coefficients (
) for SnET2 of
664 = 26,400
M-1 cm-1 and
for SnOEBC of
696 = 32,200
M-1 cm-1, as
measured previously (22)
.
Triplet Yields in Cells.
Triplet state behavior was measured in scattering samples using diffuse
reflectance laser flash photolysis as described in the literature
(19
, 20
, 30)
. Briefly, the remitted light from the front
face of a 10 x 40 x 1 mm quartz cuvette
was monitored at 470 nm using a monochromator with a photomultiplier
tube for detection, which used probe light generated from a focused
75-W xenon arc lamp. Laser excitation was provided at 666 nm for
SnET2 or at 690 nm for SnOEBC from a Nd/YAG (GCR
230; Spectra Physics, Mountain View, CA) pumped optical parametric
oscillator (Spectra Physics MOPO 710) that caused conversion of the
sensitizer to the excited triplet state. The resulting change in
reflectance of the probe light because of the difference in absorption
coefficient between the ground and triplet states was monitored before
and after the laser pulse using a high numerical aperture lens to image
the front of the cuvette onto the monochromator entrance slit before
the detector. The incident probe light and the pump beam were oriented
at an off angle (near 45 degrees) relative to the direction of
captured reflectance light, which avoided specular reflection from
entering with the analytically relevant diffuse reflectance signal.
The triplet state lifetimes were estimated by a nonlinear Marquardt
fitting routine to match the transient reflectance curve to a single
exponential decay, with the zero time point fixed to the incident laser
pulse. All of the measurements of lifetime were carried out in
nitrogen-purged solutions to minimize the quenching of the triplet
states by molecular oxygen; however, it is well known that this purging
will not completely remove the oxygen, so these lifetimes represent a
lower limit for triplet lifetimes. The transient curve reflects the
lifetime of the triplet state decay only, unaffected by the singlet
state decay, because the singlet state lifetimes are three orders of
magnitude faster, and the singlet decay occurs on the same time scale
as the laser pulse duration (26)
.
The relative triplet yields of the two sensitizers were measured in
OVCAR5 cells as well as in tissue-simulating phantoms consisting of
lipid emulsion to determine whether there was a difference in relative
triplet yield between solution values (22)
and when the
sensitizers are incorporated into more complex systems such as
lipids or cells (19
, 20
, 30)
. These measurements were
carried out by recording the changes in reflectance when the PS was
excited to the triplet state, in a manner similar to that used in flash
photolysis measurements with triplet yields in solution. For the
phantom measurements, serial dilutions of SnET2
and SnOEBC were prepared in 0.20% Intralipid in distilled water
(measured by volume) as the emulsion medium. This concentration of
Intralipid was specifically chosen to match the absolute reflectance
and transmittance values from OVCAR5 cellular slurries used in the next
phase of these measurements, with only 10% difference between the two
reflectances. Steady state reflectance and transmittance values were
measured on a diffuse reflectance spectrophotometer with reference- and
sample-integrating spheres (Model 5270; Beckman Instruments).
The comparative triplet yields in cells were measured in the same
manner as in Intralipid, except that cells were incubated with either
SnET2 or SnOEBC for 3 h with 1
µM concentration in the cell medium, washed, trypsinized,
and resuspended as dense slurries of cells in PBS. The final
concentrations of cells were 116 ± 2 million cells/ml of solution. The
cells were excited with laser pulses at the Q-band wavelengths given
above, and the change in reflectance was monitored at 470 nm. The
specific uptake values of the PSs by an aliquot of the same cells were
measured simultaneously as described above.
Photobleaching Yields in Cells.
The photobleaching yields of SnET2 and SnOEBC
were measured in situ in OVCAR5 cells. OVCAR5 monolayers
were incubated with either SnET2 or SnOEBC at 1.0
µM for 3 h and then trypsinized and
resuspended in solution. The suspensions were irradiated at the Q-band
absorption peaks for the two PSs (656 nm for
SnET2 and 690 nm for SnOEBC) using a dye laser
(model Innova 100 argon laser pumping a CR-599 dye laser; Coherent
Inc., Palo Alto, CA) while being stirred continuously to keep the cells
in suspension. The samples were analyzed for changes in absorbance and
fluorescence at varying times after irradiation. All of the samples
were 2 ml in volume, contained in 1 x 1 cm path length
quartz cuvettes, and irradiated by an expanded beam to homogeneously
irradiate all of the solution. Incident fluence rates ranged between 20
mW/cm2 to 50 mW/cm2
depending upon the sample bleaching rate. Four to five measurements of
absorption and fluorescence versus cumulative irradiation
dose were plotted for each time point, and the photobleaching quantum
yield for each sample was calculated from the ratio of the number of
molecules photobleached to the number of photons absorbed, as
described in a previous study (22)
. Briefly, the quantum
yield was calculated as the ratio of the slopes of
nPB (number of molecules
photobleached) divided by nabs (the
number of photons absorbed) as a function of the number of irradiation
intervals. The photobleaching rates of SnET2 and
SnOEBC dissolved in methanol at 1.0 µM were
also measured to directly compare the cellular rate with these
previously characterized values.
Cellular Uptake of PS.
To evaluate the relation between phototoxic efficacy of the PSs with
their intracellular content at the time of irradiation, cellular uptake
for both the PSs was established at two concentrations and at two time
points. The incubations for cell phototoxicity and uptake were
performed simultaneously with the same solutions for both parts of the
experiment. For quantification of cellular PS uptake after incubation
for 3 and 24 h, the cells were trypsinized and solubilized in 1%
SDS in 0.1 N NaOH, as described in detail previously
(31)
. The intensity of the emission peak of
SnET2 at 660 nm was determined after excitation
at 436 nm and of SnOEBC at 684 nm after excitation at 426 nm using a
SPEX-Fluorolog 2 Spectrophotometer equipped with PM 3000 analysis
software (SPEX Industries, Inc., Edison, NJ). Calculations of
concentration were based upon comparison of integrated spectral
emission from these samples with the spectra from cell lysates mixed
with known PS concentration. Cell numbers in aliquots were established
by hemocytometer to allow calculation of the absolute PS
concentration/cell.
PS Localization in Cells.
OVCAR5 cells were plated at a density of 2 x 105 cells on 20 x 20-mm
microscope coverslips in 35-mm cell culture dishes and incubated for
24 h. The resulting subconfluent cell layers were incubated for
3 h in 5 or 1 µM of either SnET2 or SnOEBC. For the
final 20 to 30 min, 9 or 25 nM, respectively, of either
rhodamine 123 (R123; Eastman Kodak, Rochester, NY) or Lysotracker (LT;
Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR) were added for coincubation. The
coverslips were rinsed with PBS, mounted with PBS on a microscope
slide, and imaged without delay.
A Leica confocal laser scanning microscope consisting of a Leica TCS 4D
scanner attached to a Leitz DMBR/E microscope was operated using the
TCS-NT software. This instrument allows simultaneous recording of three
channels. The 488-nm line of an argon ion laser was used for
excitation. A 100 x oil immersion objective with a
numerical aperture of 1.40 was used to image a square (100 x 100 µm) field at a 1024 x 1024-pixel
resolution. Assuming an index of refraction of 1.33, we calculated a
lateral resolution of 0.12 µm and an axial resolution of 0.46 µm
when using a 1-resel pinhole size. However, because of the low
PS fluorescence intensity, the pinhole had to be opened, and thus the
resolution values have to be assumed somewhat larger. One
photomultiplier tube detector was used for acquiring a transmission
differential interference contrast image that was displayed in gray
scale. The fluorescent signal emitted from the sample is separated into
two detection channels by a 580-nm dichroic mirror. The reflected
portion in the green range (below 580 nm) is passed through a bandpass
filter (525550 nm) before it is collected by the first
photomultiplier tube detector. The light that is transmitted by the
dichroic mirror is in the red range (above 580 nm) and is passed
through a 590-nm longpass filter and collected by the second detector.
The fluorescence images were displayed in green and red "false"
color output and electronically combined for visualizing
colocalization.
Photosensitization of OVCAR Cells.
OVCAR5 cells were plated in 35-mm tissue culture dishes at about 70%
confluency at the time of laser irradiation. The cells were incubated
with 1.0 µM PS in RPMI media for 3 h. Immediately
before irradiation, the culture medium was removed, and the cells were
washed with PBS containing calcium and magnesium and covered with 0.5
ml PBS. Irradiations were performed through the bottom of the cell
culture dish, using 666 nm for SnET2 and 696 nm
for SnOEBC, with radiation from an argon ion-pumped dye laser
(Coherent, Palo Alto, CA) that was expanded into a large homogeneous
(top-hat profile) beam using a fiber optic collimator. Irradiances of
typically 0.03 to 0.035 W/cm2 were used to
deliver fluences of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 J/cm2.
A second set of cells was incubated with 0.1 µM PS and
exposed to irradiation fluences of 5, 10, 20, and 30
J/cm2. These two conditions were chosen such that
the same number of photons would be expected to be absorbed in each
case, i.e., the product of the intracellular PS content and
the light dose (J/cm2) is the same for the two
conditions.
At 20 h after light treatment, the cells were incubated with 0.5
mg/ml MTT for 1 h to quantify its reduction by mitochondrial
dehydrogenases (32)
. The dehydrogenase activity at 20 h after PDT provides a sensitive method of assessing the number of
surviving cells and has been shown to correlate well with other
established measures of cytotoxicity such as clonogenic assay
(32)
. The reaction product, formazan, was quantified
photometrically at 570 nm, and the data were normalized to a control
set of cells where no light or PS was applied.
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RESULTS
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Triplet Yields in Cells.
An example of the transient reflectance changes obtained on diffuse
reflectance laser flash photolysis of these PSs is shown in the inset
in Fig. 3a
, from which the peak height of the change in reflectance is
determined. These measurements were repeated for several pulse
energies, and the initial value of the saturation change in reflectance
(
R/R) was measured as a function of
pulse energy, as plotted for both SnET2 and
SnOEBC in Fig. 3a
. This plot of change in reflectance
versus pulse energy was measured from solutions of 0.2%
Intralipid for both SnET2 and SnOEBC. From these
curves (see Fig. 3a
) the
R/R was
measured by fitting to a model of
R/R = S
[1 - exp (-k E)], where S is
the saturated value, and E is the pulse energy. The ratio of
S values for SnET2:SnOEBC should be
related to the quantum yields of triplet formation and the ratio of
triplet molar difference absorption coefficients at 470 nm.

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Fig. 3. Inset graph in a shows the transient change
in reflectance as measured from Intralipid solutions, one containing 10
µM SnET2 and the other containing 10
µM SnOEBC. The solutions were excited at their Q-band
peak and monitored for reflectance change at 470 nm; a
shows the plot of relative reflectance change versus
pump pulse energy for solutions of SnOEBC and SnET2. Fig. 3b
shows the same measurement as taken from slurries of
OVCAR5 cells incubated for 3 h in 1.0 µM of
SnET2 or SnOEBC. The cellular concentrations of
SnET2 and SnOEBC measured after incubation were 0.106
fmol/cell and 0.0462 fmol/cell, respectively.
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The triplet difference spectra of SnET2 and
SnOEBC in organic solvent were measured in a previous study and exhibit
triplet difference absorbance coefficients of 8,900
M-1cm-1 and
39,000
M-1cm-1 at
470 nm, respectively (22)
. The quantum yields of
intersystem crossing were 0.94 and 0.86, with singlet lifetimes of 1.0
and 3.4 ns, respectively. Therefore, it can be assumed that during the
time of the laser pulse (
10 ns) there is effectively complete
conversion to the triplet state, because the molecules have time
to cycle through the singlet state more than once during the laser
pulse. In Intralipid and cells, the change in reflectance after the
saturating laser pulse is because of this conversion to the triplet
state. The ratio of triplet difference absorption coefficients at 470
nm in DMSO is 4.3, whereas the reflectance change ratio within
Intralipid is 3.3.
The cellular measurements were very similar to the Intralipid
measurements, except that the PS concentrations in the cells were not
identical, which necessitated a correction for this change in uptake.
The measurement of uptake in the cells was done during the experiment
on aliquots of the same batches of cells that were used for transient
reflectance measurements. The measured uptake of
SnET2 and SnOEBC in the OVCAR5 cells was 0.106
fmol/cell and 0.0462 fmol/cell, respectively, from incubation
concentrations of 1 µM for each sensitizer. These values
correspond to volume concentrations of 12.6 mM and 5.2
mM for the cell slurries (having cell densities of
1.18 x 108 cells/ml and
1.14 x 108 cells/ml) for
SnET2 and SnOEBC, respectively. The saturated
change in reflectance for both sensitizers was measured from the data
of
R/R versus laser pulse energy, shown in Fig. 3b
. When corrected for the concentration difference, the
ratio of reflectance change of SnET2:SnOEBC is
3.5. Interestingly, the ratio of reflectance change and, hence, triplet
state yield is consistent between Intralipid and cellular suspensions.
This result suggests that the triplet yield is not significantly
affected by the differences in local binding and environment between
lipid suspension and OVCAR5 cells when tested under the conditions of
this study.
The triplet state lifetimes were calculated from the transient
absorption change and were found to be 61 µs for
SnET2 and 52 µs for SnOEBC in deoxygenated cell
suspension. These values can be compared with the triplet state
lifetimes measured when dissolved in DMSO, which were previously
measured at 34 and 30 µs, respectively (22)
, for the
deoxygenated solutions.
Photobleaching in Cells.
The quantum yields of photobleaching for SnET2
and SnOEBC within OVCAR5 cells were measured by comparison with the
bleaching rate of SnET2 in air-saturated
methanol. For both sensitizers, the bleaching rates were measured in
both aerated and deaerated (N2-flushed) cell
suspensions. The values from these measurements are shown in Table 1
, indicating that SnET2 had an aerated solution
photobleaching yield of 3.7%, whereas all of the other yields were
below 1%. Interestingly, the photobleaching yield of SnOEBC is higher
in nitrogen-purged environment than when aerated, indicating that in
nonaerated conditions photobleaching is dominated by a pathway other
than singlet oxygen.
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Table 1 Measured photobleaching quantum yield for PS localized in OVCAR5 cells
after incubation at 1.0 µM for 3 h
The triplet lifetime measured in cells with diffuse reflectance laser
flash photolysis, listed only for the deaerated condition.
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Cellular Uptake.
The uptake of SnET2 and SnOEBC in OVCAR5 cells
was measured for incubation concentrations of 1.0 and 0.1
µM and, for 3-h and 24-h periods of incubation, are
presented as fmol/cell in Table 2
. For SnET2, the intracellular concentrations for
both 3-h time points were directly proportional to the initial
incubation concentrations (i.e., as the incubated
concentration increases by a factor of 10, the uptake concentration
increases by a factor of 10 (first two rows of Table 2
). This was not
true for SnOEBC where a 10-fold increase in the incubation
concentrations gave only a 7.5-fold enhancement of the intracellular
concentrations. There was also a lack of linearity as the incubation
time was increased from 3 to 24 h, possibly suggesting a
saturation phenomenon.
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Table 2 PS uptake of OVCAR5 cells incubated with SnET2 and SnOEBC
for the same sets of conditions
Cells were plated in 35-mm dishes and incubated when 5070%
confluent. PS uptake was measured by fluorescence after extraction and
comparison with a calibration curve of measurements from known PS
concentrations. The SD of the uptake values are shown in parentheses
after each value.
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Subcellular Localization.
Cellular localization of purpurins was established in living cells
using confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscopy (see Fig. 4
). When imaging cells at low PS concentrations, the cellular
autofluorescence signal needs to be considered. In untreated cells,
there was a weak green fluorescence with a mitochondrial pattern and
some yellow fluorescence that was apparently lysosomally localized.
When cells were incubated for 3 h with 1 µM of
either PS, a lysosomal localization was indicated by a color change of
the lysosomes from yellow to orange or red in the combined fluorescence
images. Costaining experiments with the markers rhodamine123 and
Lysotracker confirmed predominant localization of the two PSs to the
lysosomes. In addition, a weak but clearly distinguishable
mitochondrial component of the red fluorescence distribution was
visible for SnOEBC but not for SnET2.

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Fig. 4. Confocal fluorescence images of the subcellular
localization of SnET2 and SnOEBC in OVCAR5 cells;
A, incubation with 1 µM SnOEBC (3 h) and 9
nM rhodamine 123 (20 min) results in a clear distinction
between red fluorescence from SnOEBC-laden lysosomes, whereas the
rhodamine123-containing mitochondria show green fluorescence;
B, when Lysotracker (25 nM; 20 min) was used
for costaining, red SnOEBC fluorescence and green Lysotracker signal
combine to appear in different shades of yellow and orange,
demonstrating colocalization to lysosomes. The green halos around the
nuclei are from mitochondrial autofluorescence. C and
D, differential interference contrast transmission
images of A and B. When incubating
for 3 h with 5 µM SnET2
(E), the red purpurin fluorescence was confined to
lysosomes, whereas exposure to 5 µM SnOEBC resulted in
much stronger lysosomal fluorescence and the localization of red
fluorescence to mitochondria.
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Cellular Photosensitization.
Phototoxicity assays of the OVCAR5 cells incubated with
SnET2 or SnOEBC were carried out as a function of
light fluence after incubation with two PS concentrations, 1.0
µM and 0.1 µM. With the 1.0
µM incubations, light doses of 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0
J/cm2 were delivered. The percentage of cell
survival was measured by normalizing the results of the MTT assay with
cells that where incubated with PS but were not irradiated. All of the
experimental points are an average of three plates, and each experiment
was performed at least twice on separate days. The results of these
assays are plotted in Fig. 5
.

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Fig. 5. Cell survival as measured by MTT assay for OVCAR5 cells
incubated at (a) 1.0 µM PS for 3 h
and at (b) 0.1 µM PS for 3 h. The
SnET2 incubated cells were irradiated with 666 nm light,
and the SnOEBC cells were irradiated with 690 nm light.
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With sensitizer incubations of 0.1 µM, irradiation
fluences of 5, 10, 20, and 30 J/cm2 were used.
These light doses were specifically chosen to maintain a constant
product of PS and light dose for the two drug dose conditions. The PS
uptake measurements, shown in Table 2
, had indicated that for 3-h
incubations the amount of drug taken up within these concentrations is
near linearly dependent upon the incubation dose (less linear for
SnOEBC than for SnET2), so that cells incubated
at 1.0 µM would take up 10 times the amount of the PS of
cells incubated at 0.1 µM. Thus, if complete PS-light
dose reciprocity holds, the cell toxicity should be identical for both
Fig. 5 a and b
. The fact that the cell survival
curve for SnET2 in Fig. 5b
is
significantly different from SnOEBC and from
SnET2 in Fig. 5a
demonstrates that
reciprocity does not hold and other factor(s) are influencing the
cellular toxicity.
Prediction of Singlet Oxygen Production.
The measurement of photobleaching of the two sensitizers directly in
the cells along with a known PS uptake, intersystem crossing quantum
yields, and singlet oxygen yields allows calculation of the singlet
oxygen concentration/cell that should have been produced. Ideally, the
singlet oxygen generation would be directly measured; however, the
short lifetime of this species in biological systems precludes this
measurement. Using the equation derived in previous studies of these
two PSs (22)
,
where
isc is the singlet to triplet
intersystem crossing quantum yield, S
is the probability that a singlet oxygen molecule will be produced in
the quenching of the triplet state molecule by oxygen (i.e.,
the singlet oxygen quantum yield of the molecule is the product of
these two ratios, 
=
isc S
),
[PS]0 is the initial PS
concentration,
PB is the photobleaching
quantum yield of the molecule,
is the molar absorption
coefficient,
is the light fluence rate, t is
the time of irradiation, and
[O2(1
g)]
is the cumulative concentration of singlet oxygen produced (see Fig. 2
for illustration). This equation is derived with the assumption that
there is abundant oxygen supply in the surrounding medium and that the
oxygen consumption rate does not significantly affect the ambient
supply, which is a valid assumption for in vitro conditions,
as justified in the next section. The calculation of singlet oxygen
generated/cell was carried out for the conditions used in the
photosensitization experiments. For SnET2, the
cellular uptake was 0.014 and 0.147 fmol/cell at the two incubation
conditions, and for SnOEBC, the uptake was 0.0081 and 0.058 fmol/cell.
The singlet oxygen quantum yields were taken as measured when bound to
BSA, because direct measurement in the cells has not been possible.
This latter assumption is somewhat validated by the fact that the
relative intersystem crossing yields did not change when bound to cells
(
isc), which suggests that the behavior of the
PS molecule triplet state is not greatly influenced by the binding
status in this particular system. Finally, the molar absorption
coefficients used were as measured when bound to BSA in aqueous
solution. The calculated results are plotted in Fig. 6a and b
for the two incubation conditions of high
and low PS dose, respectively, to correspond directly with the data in
Fig. 5 a and b
of cell survival. Interestingly,
in Fig. 6a
, where the cells showed similar toxicity
levels to both PSs at the higher PS concentration, the calculated
singlet oxygen curves overlap considerably. In Fig. 5b
, where there is less PS and more light delivered,
the cell survival curves clearly separate, with
SnET2 having little phototoxic effect. In this
case (Fig. 6b)
, the singlet oxygen produced is limited by
photobleaching, whereas SnOEBC exhibits an increased toxicity and
singlet oxygen generation with increasing light dose.

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Fig. 6. Calculations of the amount of singlet oxygen produced/cell
incorporating the measured values for photobleaching quantum yield
in vitro. Fluence ranges and PS concentrations in
a and b were set to simulate the
experimental conditions of the data graphed in Fig. 5 a and b
, respectively.
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 |
DISCUSSION
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In general, there are many factors that can affect the
photosensitization of cells. In this study, we attempted to directly
measure the parameters for SnET2 and SnOEBC
pertinent to sensitization of OVCAR5 cells including triplet state
yields, photobleaching quantum yield, PS uptake, site of localization,
and cell survival for two different sets of light-PS dose conditions.
Together, these parameters can be used to calculate the singlet oxygen
yield/cell and allow a quantitative interpretation of the cell survival
data.
It has been suggested that molecules that localize predominantly in the
mitochondria are more potent PSs, possibly because they initiate cell
death via the apoptotic pathway as compared with those that localize in
lysosomes (33, 34, 35, 36, 37)
. The unexpected observations in this
study that the PS SnET2 with a greater
accumulation in OVCAR cells was less phototoxic than SnOEBC may be, to
some extent, attributed to a mitochondrial localization component of
the SnOEBC in contrast to SnET2. In addition to
the slight difference in the subcellular distribution of the two
molecules, there was a more striking difference in their photobleaching
rates.
The measurement of photobleaching is most important here, because there
is a significant change in the quantum yield of photobleaching for both
sensitizers when taken up in the cells, as compared with solution. The
bleaching quantum yields bound to albumin were previously measured to
be 8 x 10-4 and 3 x 10-6 for SnET2 and
SnOEBC, respectively, in air-saturated solution. The
measurements in air-saturated cells are 0.037 and 0.0021, respectively,
which indicates an increase of more than two orders of magnitude
bleaching yield in cells, when compared with solution measurements.
Additionally, the photobleaching yield of SnET2
is increased in the presence of oxygen, whereas that of SnOEBC is
lowered in the presence of oxygen. This latter observation suggests
that SnOEBC photobleaching results directly from the
T1 state and is a competitive pathway with
singlet oxygen production. The increased triplet lifetime, when
incorporated in cells, would effectively increase the photobleaching
yield. In contrast, the SnET2 photobleaching
decreases in the absence of oxygen, which suggests that this bleaching
mechanism is from the interaction of O2
(1
g) with the
sensitizer. There is also considerable bleaching in the absence of
oxygen, which suggests that there is more than one pathway for the
degradation of the molecule, where one pathway is mediated by singlet
oxygen and the other pathway involves direct photobleaching from the
excited states S1 and T1
(38
, 39)
.
The measurement of triplet yield in living cells was important to
assess whether binding to the lysosomes affected the intersystem
crossing rate to the triplet state. The measurements here indicate
that, to first order, the intersystem crossing yields of
SnET2 and SnOEBC are in the same ratio as in
dilute solution. The absolute yields of intersystem crossing are also
similar to those measured in Intralipid emulsion, where presumably the
PS molecules may be bound to the lipid molecules. These measurements
would indicate that the PS is not highly aggregated in cells under the
conditions of low PS concentration examined here and that localization
in the lysosomes did not significantly affect the triplet yields. This
is in contrast to similar recent experiments (20
, 21)
on
plasma membrane-localizing PSs where a correlation of photophysics,
measured in vitro using laser flash photolysis, with
phototoxicity demonstrated concentration-dependent
photosensitization mechanisms and efficacy, but the concentration range
studied was much higher than in the present work.
From the calculations presented in Fig. 6
and cell survival
observations in Fig. 5
, a minimum threshold singlet oxygen dose can be
predicted for these sensitizers in OVCAR5 cells. Because the incubation
of SnET2 at 0.1 µM produced no
appreciable phototoxicity (Fig. 5b
, ) and the calculated
singlet oxygen produced at this dose was limited to 5 x 108 molecules/cell, we can estimate that
the lower limit of the threshold to produce phototoxicity is near
109 singlet oxygen molecules/cell, summed over
the entire irradiation time. This type of estimate is important to
allow a quantitative comparison of the relative biological
effectiveness for killing with PSs. Assuming the cells to be an average
of 15-µm diameter, the volume of a cell is 1.8 x 10-12 liter and the singlet oxygen dose is then near 1021 O2(1
g)
molecules/liter (i.e., the equivalent of over
10-3 mol/liter if summed over the total
irradiation time). These values can be compared with the estimates of
Nichols and Foster (40)
, who measured the threshold
singlet oxygen dose for Photofrin in tumor spheroids to be
0.32 x 10-3 mol/liter, or
Georgakoudi et al. (41)
, who corrected this
estimate for the photobleaching effect and estimated the value as 12
mM. Given the variation in the localization site
between Photofrin and these purpurins and that different cell lines
were used, the order of magnitude agreement observed here is
encouraging. This comparison of singlet oxygen yield required for cell
death is a useful index of phototoxicity and one that will likely vary
depending on the localization of the sensitizer in vitro.
Interestingly, the confocal fluorescence studies show the PS localized
in the lysosomes and that the fraction of the cell that is composed of
lysosomes is perhaps <1% of the cell. This suggests that the singlet
oxygen produced in the lysosomes is near 0.1 mol/liter, summed over the
entire irradiation time. Further study of this threshold dose concept
may improve the understanding of photodynamic efficacy and the
correlation to absorbed photodynamic dose.
The interpretation of singlet oxygen production as the mediator of cell
toxicity has implicitly assumed that oxygen is in abundant supply and
that the photochemical depletion is not significant. We have validated
that the concentration of oxygen does not fall significantly during
this irradiation in two ways: first, we have compared our results with
several published studies; and secondly, we calculated the consumption
rate for the experimental conditions used in the study. Moor et
al. (42)
used both calculations and direct
measurements to conclude that in vitro oxygen depletion is
not significant, even at optical fluence rates of 500
mW/cm2, which are a factor of 16 times
higher than used in this study. Aveline and Redmond (21)
also used direct measurements of oxygen consumption in vitro
with µM levels of deuteroporphyrin and
different brominated derivatives and did not observe appreciable oxygen
consumption until the oxygen in solution was reduced to 0.5% (down
from our value of 22%).
Calculation of the oxygen consumption rate can be done assuming that in
normal cell culture the oxygen concentration is near that of
air-saturated water, which corresponds to 0.26 mM, and the
maximal cellular concentration of PS was 0.147 fmol/cell and 0.058
fmol/cell for SnET2 and SnOEBC, respectively. Using 35-mm Petri dishes
at 70% confluence gives us approximately 0.6 million cells/dish, which
leads to an overall concentration near 0.12 µM when
normalized for the 0.5-ml volume of saline covering the cells. The
photon absorption probability rate can be calculated from the product
of the photon absorption cross section of the PS,
, times
the light fluence rate,
, when converted to the
appropriate quantized units. Given a molar absorbance of 2 x 104
M-1
cm-1, this corresponds to a cross section of
= 3.3 x 10-17 cm2/molecule. The
light fluence rate was 0.03 W/cm2, which
corresponds to 1 x 1017 photons
cm-2 s-1. Then the photon
absorption probability rate/molecule is the product

= 3 photons/molecule/second,
such that most molecules will absorb three photons every second.
However, the concentration of PS is 0.12 µM, whereas the
oxygen concentration is near 0.26 mM. Thus, even assuming a
singlet oxygen quantum yield of 1, the consumption of oxygen over the
100 s of the experiment leads to a total of 0.036
µM consumed. Thus, a conservative estimate of
the consumption rate is about an order of magnitude lower than the rate
needed to cause depletion of oxygen in vitro.
In summary, this study shows that even for PSs with very similar
chemical structures and photophysical properties in homogenous media,
the photosensitization potential does not have a simple relationship
with any single variable including cellular content. PS subcellular
distribution and photophysics within cells are critical determinants of
photosensitization efficiency. When such comprehensive measurements are
made in the relevant environment, reasonable agreement can be obtained
between phototoxicity and calculations of singlet oxygen production
(21)
, and then it may be possible to quantitatively
predict the absorbed photodynamic dose to cells and tissue.
 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
|
|---|
The authors would like to thank Hans-Christian Luedemann for his
expert assistance in the transient diffuse-reflectance measurements,
and to Drs. Brian C. Wilson, Lothar Lilge, and Michael S. Patterson for
thoughtful discussions.
 |
FOOTNOTES
|
|---|
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
1 Supported in part by the Office of Naval
Research contract N00014-94-I-0927 (to T. H., B. O., B. W. P.,
N. C.), by Miravant Inc. (Santa Barbara, California), from NIH RO1
C68524A (to R. W. R.) and NIH 1R01CA78734 (to B. W. P.). 
2 To whom requests for reprints should be
addressed, at Wellman Laboratories of Photomedicine, Department of
Dermatology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 50 Blossom Street WEL224,
Boston, MA 02114. Phone: (617) 726-6856; Fax: (617) 726-8566. 
3 The abbreviations used are: PDT, photodynamic
therapy; PS, photosensitizer; SnET2, tin ethyl etiopurpurin
I; SnOEBC, tin octaethylbenzochlorin; O2
(1
g), singlet state molecular oxygen; MTT,
3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide. 
Received 4/17/00.
Accepted 11/ 8/00.
 |
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