Blue light-activated hypocrellin B damages ovarian cancer cells

In the present study, a novel blue light source from LED was used to activate hypocrellin B in ovarian cancer HO-8910 cells. Hypporellin B concentration was kept at 2.5 μM and light doses from 0.5–4.0 J/cm². Photocytotoxicity was investigated using MTT reduction assay and light microscopy after light irradiation. Cellular morphology was observed using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). MTT assay showed that the cytotoxicity of blue light-activated hypocrellin B in HO-8910 cells increased along with light dose. The observations from light microscopy reinforced the above results. TEM showed that microvillin disappearance, vacuole formation, chromatin condensation, and topical apoptotic body were observed in the cells treated by both light and hypocrellin B. The findings demonstrated that blue light from LED source could effectively activate hypocrellin B to cause the destruction of HO-8910 cells, indicating that Blue light-activated hypocrellin B might be potential therapeutic strategy in the management of ovarian cancer.