Ultrasound biological modulation for regenerative medicine

In a collaboration between Institute Physics for Medicine (Inserm, ESPCI Paris-PSL, CNRS) and Institut Curie (Sorbonne Université, CNRS), we demonstrated the ability of ultrasound for modulating biological processes: we established that low-intensity ultrasound could activate the oncogene receptor RET in mice cells. Ultrasound could therefore be used for regenerative medicine. The study has been published in December 2024 in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The researchers have performed quantitative measurements and acoustic stimulations to analyse the effect of different physical mechanisms on the activation of RET receptor, such as acoustic compression and shear strains. Results show that this activation is not thermally-induced, independant from shear strains, but rather depends on the acoustic pressure.

This discovery opens promising perspectives for regenerative medicine. Ultrasound could potentially stimulate the cellular proliferation and cellular regeneration in a controlled manner. Many medical applications could result, from healing denegerative pathologies to improving the treatments of inflammatory diseases.

The study also reveals the ability of ultrasound to activate markers of cellular proliferation such as Ki67 and Lgr5, through longer stimulation times. This could be further investigated to develop new methods in tissular regeneration and targeted cell therapies.

Full publication: Zamfirov L, Nguyen N-M, Fernandez-Sanches ME, Cambronera Ghiglione P, Teston E, Dizeux A, Tiennot T, Farge E, Demené C, Tanter M, Acoustic-pressure-driven ultrasonic activation of the mechanosensitive receptor Ret and of cell proliferation in colonic tissue, Nature Biomedical Engineering 2024, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41551-024-01300-9

Contact: please feel free to address your questions to efarge@curie.fr, charlie.demene@espci.fr, and mickael.tanter@espci.fr.