Light attenuation in rat skin following low level laser therapy on burn healing process

Daniela Fátima Teixeira Silva; Martha Simões Ribeiro

doi:10.1117/12.854672

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17 May 2010 Light attenuation in rat skin following low level laser therapy on burn healing process

Daniela Fátima Teixeira Silva, Martha Simões Ribeiro

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Proceedings Volume 7715, Biophotonics: Photonic Solutions for Better Health Care II; 77151O (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.854672
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2010, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

Low-level laser therapy (LLLT) is commonly used to accelerate wound healing. Besides, the technique of imaging the light distribution inside biological tissues permits us to understand several effects about light-tissue interaction. The purpose of this study was to determine the relative attenuation coefficient of the light intensity in healthy and burned skin rats during cutaneous repair following LLLT or not. Two burns about 6mm in diameter were cryogenerated using liquid N2 on the back of 15 rats. Lesion L was irradiated by a He-Ne laser (λ= 632.8nm) and fluence 1.0J/cm²; Lesion C was control and received sham irradiation. A healthy skin area (H) was also analyzed. The lesions were irradiated at days 3, 7, 10 and 14 post-burning. The animals were euthanized at days 3, 10 and 31 and skin samples were carefully removed and placed between two microscope slides, spaced by z= 1mm. A laser beam irradiated the sandwiched tissue from epidermis to dermis. A CCD camera was placed orthogonal to the beam path and it photographed the distribution of the scattered light. The light decay occurred according to the Beer's Law. Significance was accepted at p <0.01 by using t-Student test. Our results show that the light decay along any direction was close to an exponential. Burned skin samples presented decay significantly faster than healthy skin samples. Besides, attenuation coefficient changed during burning healing comparing treated and control lesions. These findings suggest that the relative attenuation coefficient is a suitable parameter to optimize LLLT during wound healing.

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Daniela Fátima Teixeira Silva and Martha Simões Ribeiro "Light attenuation in rat skin following low level laser therapy on burn healing process", Proc. SPIE 7715, Biophotonics: Photonic Solutions for Better Health Care II, 77151O (17 May 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.854672

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