Conservation of bactericidal activity in ultrasound-exposed murine peritoneal phagocytic cells

Abstract Murine peritoneal exudate cells (PEC), predominantly macrophages, were insonated in vitro with burst-mode ultrasound and assayed for their ability to phagocytose and kill Staphylococcus aureus . PEC were exposed at 37°C in rotating tubes to 1-MHz, burst-mode (10 ms on, 10 ms off) ultrasound at 3.7 ± 0.2 W/cm 2 I SPTA (7.4 ± 0.4 W/cm 2 I SPBA ) for 150 s. Bactericidal activity was assayed at 1, 2, and 3 h after exposure and subsequent 37°C incubation with the bacteria for 20 min. In these experiments, which comprised 17 treated and 7 sham-treated control samples, there was no significant difference in results between treated and control samples ( p > 0.29).