Lower sensitivity of FHC fetal colon epithelial cells to photodynamic therapy compared to HT-29 colon adenocarcinoma cells despite higher intracellular accumulation of hypericin

Preferential uptake of photosensitizer by tumour tissue is an elementary prerequisite of effective and successful photodynamic therapy (PDT). Therefore intracellular concentration of photosensitizer is one of the limiting factors affecting PDT efficiency. Hypericin (HY) has found applications in photodynamic diagnostics solely due to its high specificity for tumour cells and tissues. However, here we suggest that not only HY uptake, but importantly also the cell ability to manage oxidative stress induced by HY-PDT can be important decisive factors finally affecting the cell death response. We showed that despite the higher accumulation of HY in FHC human fetal colon epithelial cells compared to HT-29 colon adenocarcinoma cells, the cytotoxic effects of this photosensitizer were more pronounced in the latter cell line, and this was associated with enhanced accumulation of HY-PDT-induced reactive oxygen species (ROS).