Why are spontaneous bio photons observed only in living organisms? The key role of the proton current in ultra-weak photon emission

Light emission from living things is still at the centre of scientific interest. Ultra-weak photon emission (UPE) in the range from 300 to 900 nm has been discovered in living cells and organisms, including the human body 1. In general, so-called bio photons are attributed to life. Our recent studies on protonic p-n junction formation and light emission from electrically powered protonic p-n junction systems suggest, that UPE can be generated by excitations owing to proton current flow in living cells and sub-cellular structures (e.g. mitochondria), just like it is done in the case of laboratory protonic light-emitting diodes (H+LED) 2,3. While the emission of higher energy bio photons (above 3 eV, 200-420 nm wavelength) is mainly caused by radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) 1, 21, 32, 36, 37, 38, lower energy bio photons (below 3 eV, at 420 -1000 nm wavelength) should be associated with the excitation of the protonic system as a result of the flow of the proton current (discussed in this paper). We expect this to have important biomedical implications for diagnosis and therapy using UPE 36, 37. The similarity of H+LED and UPE spectra (Fig. 2) allows the use of protonic H+LED as a new broadband light source, ideally suited to mitochondria-oriented low-intensity light therapy 37. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=174 HEIGHT=200 SRC="FIGDIR/small/557955v1_fig2.gif" ALT="Figure 2"> View larger version (38K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@4709b5org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1ce7132org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@69b07forg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@c29245_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG O_FLOATNOFig. 2.C_FLOATNO Correspondence of the spectrum of ultra-weak photon emission UPE from the ventral side of the human finger (top; according to M. Kobayashi et al. 15) and our protonic H+LED 2. C_FIG Our results explain why spontaneous biophotons (UPE) are observed only in living organisms, tissues and cells 21. This is due to the constant flow of protons in the active ATP synthase/ATPase 23 and in the mitochondria in general 25-28, which is necessary both for life and for the emission of light (observed as bio photons).