Effects of Narrow Band UVB (311 nm) Irradiation on Epidermal Cells

Abstract

Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is known to be one of the most important environmental hazards acting on the skin. It was revealed that chronic exposure to UVR accelerates skin aging, induces immunosuppression and may lead to the development of skin cancers. On the other hand, UVR has been shown to be effective in the treatment of numerous skin diseases and thus, various phototherapy modalities have been developed to date. Narrow-band ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) emitting a light with a peak around 311 nm has been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of various skin disorders; currently it is one of the most commonly used phototherapy devices. Despite NB-UVB has been developed more than 30 years ago, the exact mechanism of its therapeutic action remains poorly understood. To date, most of NB-UVB effects were attributed to its influence on immune cells; however, nearly 90% of NB-UVB irradiation is absorbed by epidermis and keratinocytes seem to be important players in mediating NB-UVB biological activity. Here, we have reviewed the current data about the influence of NB-UVB on epidermal cells, with a special emphasis on cell proliferation and death.

Role of Narrow-band Ultraviolet B Phototherapy with Topical Tacrolimus 0.03% for Treatment of Childhood Vitiligo

“…It acts on epidermal pigment cells. 5 Narrow-band ultraviolet B is shown to directly stimulate hair follicle-derived neural crest stem cells to differentiate into melanocyte lineage. 5 It enhances the mobility of Figs 1A to C: Response at 0, 12, 24 weeks respectively.…”

Influence of alumina on photoluminescence and thermoluminescence characteristics of Gd 3+ doped barium borophosphate glasses

“…As a result inter-ionic spacing between the rare earth ions increases and the emission losses due to quenching /cross relaxation are expected to minimized. In general, Al 2 In this study, we have investigated the influence of Al 2 O 3 concentration on the emission characteristics and time decay profiles of Gd 3+ ions in BaO-B 2 O 3 -P 2 O 5 glass network. We have also put an effort to throw some light on mechanism responsible for the variation in the intensity of emission transition in terms of interactions between Al 3+ ions and Gd 3+ ions and attempted to identify optimum level of concentration of Al 2 O 3 required for enriching UVB emission.…”

“…This particular emission beam is the subject of many investigations due to its effective use in medical field especially in the treatment of skin diseases [1,2]. Several attempts were made to enhance the intensity of this UVB emission beam of Gd 3+ ions in glass matrices by co-doping with other ions like Ag + [3] in the glass matrices.…”

Oxidation Reduction is a Key Process for Successful Treatment of Psoriasis by Narrow-band UVB Phototherapy

“…Suppression of the IFN and TH17 pathways by NB-UVB phototherapy was found in resolved psoriatic lesions (10). In addition to immune cells, epidermal keratinocytes have also been considered the major target for NB-UVB therapeutic efficacy since induction of keratinocyte apoptosis in psoriatic lesions was shown to be sufficient for resolution of lesions during NB-UVB phototherapy (11,12).In order to gain more insight into the therapeutic action of NB-UVB phototherapy on psoriatic epidermis, we performed a profiling study to investigate global gene expression of epidermal cells before treatment, after one month of treatment, and prior to the last session of treatment (2-3 months). The relationship between gene expression and treatment outcome was studied using Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis (PLS-DA) to identify the key therapeutic targets of NB-UVB phototherapy.…”