Promotion of neural sprouting using low-level green light-emitting diode phototherapy

We irradiated neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cell line with low-level light-emitting diode (LED) illumination at a visible wavelength of 520 nm (green) and intensity of 100 mW/cm(2). We captured and analyzed the cell morphology before LED treatment, immediately after, and 12 and 24 h after treatment. Our study demonstrated that LED illumination increases the amount of sprouting den-drites in comparison to the control untreated cells. This treatment also resulted in more elongated cells after treatment in comparison to the control cells and higher levels of expression of a differentiation related gene. This result is a good indication that the proposed method could serve in phototherapy treatment for increasing sprouting and enhancing neural network formation. (C) 2015 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)