Effects of Conditioned Media from Cell Cultures Stimulated with LIPUS on the Viability of Retinal Neurons and Müller Glia

The use of low intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) has been increased in recent years because of its potential to produce a variety of significant effects. Results under different conditions have indicated that it can be used either to provoke cells death or to produce tissue regeneration. In accordance with research in other systems, as the brain, LIPUS could be proposed for ophthalmic applications, e.g. to prevent retinal damage, to improve drug delivery, to dissolve blood clots or sonothrombolysis, among others. In this paper, a study of cell viability of retinal neurons and Müller glia treated with LIPUS is presented. This viability is analogized between direct LIPUS treatments and the case when using conditioned media of LIPUS treated cells. LIPUS was applied at 10% and 20% duty factors by using a commercial ultrasound transducer with an adjustable signal generator. Total acoustic intensity at the culture well was measured and compared with the free- field condition. Results indicate an increase in Müller glia viability when using conditioned media from LIPUS pretreated retinal neurons. Using LIPUS to directly treat the cells provokes a small increase in viability without statistical significance.