The biological effects of terahertz wave radiation-induced injury on neural stem cells

Terahertz (THz) is an electromagnetic wave with a radiation wavelength range of 30–3000 μm and a frequency of 0.1–10 THz. With the development of new THz sources and devices, THz has been widely applied in various fields. However, there are few studies on biological effects of THz irradiation on the human neural stem cells (hNSCs) and mouse neural stem cells (mNSCs), which need to be further studied. We studied the biological effects of THz radiation on hNSCs and mNSCs. The effects of THz irradiation time and average output power on the proliferation, apoptosis, and DNA damage of NSCs were analyzed by flow cytometry and immunofluorescence. The results showed that the proliferation and apoptosis of NSCs were dose-dependently affected by THz irradiation time and average output power. The proliferation of hNSCs was more vulnerable to damage and apoptosis was more serious under the same terahertz irradiation conditions compared to those of mNSCs.