Isao YAMAKAWA^1,2, Yuuta SAITOH¹, Atsushi USUI¹, Issei SASAKI^1,2* and Akio KAZUSAKA³

¹Division of Applied Electronics, Graduate School, Hokkaido Institute of Technology, 4-1, Maeda 7-5, Teine-ku, Sapporo 006-8585, Japan
²Research and Development Laboratory for Optical Fiber Application, Advanced Technology Inc., 4-1, Maeda 7-5, Teine-ku, Sapporo 006-8585, Japan
³Graduate School of Veterinary Medicine, Hokkaido University, Kita 18, Nishi 9, Kita-ku, Sapporo 060-0818, Japan

(Received February 17, 2003; Accepted October 9, 2003)

This paper presents a high performance fiber-optic sensing system for analyzing the isozymes reaction of cytochrome P450 (CYP). In the inherent biological system of lifeguard against chemical toxicants, the enzymes metabolize such chemical species to safer formulae. As is well known, some particular types of CYP, such as CYP-1A, however, often trigger the cancer development process by selective activation of carcinogen. A new technique for medical diagnosis of cancer development at very early or even predictive stage may be achievable based on the evaluation of the activity of the enzymes related to the cancer development by using the present system. In order to demonstrate the potential of the system, CYP-1A induced in liver of living rats by medication using 2,3,7,8-tetrachloro-dibenzofuran (2,3,7,8-TCDF) is measured and curves revealing the fluorescent power transition for each concentration of toxicants are successfully observed with good sensitivity.

Key words: fiber optic sensor, isozymes reaction, cytochrome P450, cancer diagnosis, carcinogen, 2,3,7,8-TCDF

^*Correspondence Email address: isasaki@hit.ac.jp