Resonating with Cellular Pathways: Transcriptome Insights into Nonthermal Bioeffects of Middle Infrared Light Stimulation and Vibrational Strong Coupling on Cell Proliferation and Migration

Abstract

Middle infrared stimulation (MIRS) and vibrational strong coupling (VSC) have been separately applied to physically regulate biological systems but scarcely compared with each other, especially at identical vibrational frequencies, though they both involve resonant mechanism. Taking cell proliferation and migration as typical cell-level models, herein, we comparatively studied the nonthermal bioeffects of MIRS and VSC with selecting the identical frequency (53.5 THz) of the carbonyl vibration. We found that both MIRS and VSC can notably increase the proliferation rate and migration capacity of fibroblasts. Transcriptome sequencing results reflected the differential expression of genes related to the corresponding cellular pathways. This work not only sheds light on the synergistic nonthermal bioeffects from the molecular level to the cell level but also provides new evidence and insights for modifying bioreactions, further applying MIRS and VSC to the future medicine of frequencies.