The authors have indicated no significant interest with commercial supporters.

Background and Objectives: Intense pulsed light (IPL) is regarded as the gold standard of nonablative photorejuvenation. Yet there is still a need to observe its efficacy and safety on dark skin using a split-face module. Study Design/Materials and Methods: Twenty-four Chinese women with photoaging were enrolled in this study. Patients were randomized to receive four IPL treatments at 3-to 4-week intervals on one side of face, with the other side spared as control. Changes of photoaging were evaluated using a global evaluation, an overall self-assessment, a Mexameter and a Corneometer. Skin biopsies were taken after four sessions of treatment on one side of face. The melanocyte density and the contents of melanin, collagen fibers, and elastic fibers were stained and used to evaluate the improvement on dyschromia and other signs of photoaging. Results: The global scores of photoaging on treated side decreased significantly from 3.02 to 1.22, while it remained unchanged on the untreated side. Twenty-one of 24 patients (87.5%) rated their improvement as excellent or good. The difference on the values of melanin index and erythema index on treated side were significantly larger than those on untreated side after the 1st session, the 4th session and at 3-month follow-up (P<0.05). The melanin contents were significantly decreased and the collagen fibers were obviously increased only on treated side (P<0.05). Adverse effects of treated side were limited to mild pain and transient erythema. Conclusion: Using this split-face module, IPL treatment is proved both clinically and histologically to be effective in treating photoaging skin in Chinese population. Adverse effects were minimal and acceptable.

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Bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs) play a central role in human multiple myeloma(MM) cell survival and proliferation. We explored the possibility of using BMSCs as a target for MM treatment using genistein, a chemopreventive agent with little or no toxicity in humans. NF-kB was constitutively active in BMSCs and genistein down-regulated NF-kB in BMSCs as measured by an electrophoretic mobility gel shift assay. BMSCs also showed constitutively active Akt phosphorylation that was suppressed by genistein. Genistein also down-regulated the expression of NF-kB-regulated gene products, including bcl-2, bcl-xl, Cyclin D1, IL-6, and ICAM-1, which was associated with the suppression of BMSC proliferation. MM cells can survive if co-cultured with BMSCs, suggesting that the bone marrow microenvironment is important. However, genistein-treated BMSCs provide little support to MM cells. Overall, our results indicate that genistein down-regulates NF-kB and phospho-Akt of BMSCs in human myeloma, leading to the suppression of gene expression of bcl-2, bcl-xl, Cyclin D1, IL-6, and ICAM-1 suppression proliferation, thus providing a potential new target for the treatment of MM. Drug Dev Res 69: 219-225, 2008.