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Low Level Light Therapy
sponsored by
American Society for Photobiology
Low Level Light Therapy is the application of very low power red or near infrared light for wound healing or other therapeutic purposes.
Current Work of Michael Hamblin, member of the ASP
-Michael R Hamblin, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology, Harvard Medical School,
Wellman Center for Photomedicine, Massachusetts General Hospital.
e-mail: hamblin@helix.mgh.harvard.edu, web site
It has been known for many years that low levels of laser or non-coherent light in the red or near-infrared spectral region (LLLT) accelerate some phases of wound healing, reduce pain, inflammation and swelling, and prevent tissue death, but the benefits of LLLT in wound healing and medicine in general are still controversial. Partly this may be explained by the complicated dosimetry that pertains with regard to coherence, monochromaticity, wavelength, total fluence, pulse-structure, polarization state, power density and treatment repetition. More basic mechanistic studies at the cellular and tissue level, and also well controlled randomized double blind clinical trials are needed before LLLT will gain wide acceptance in the medical community.
Dr Hamblin's laboratory at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School is working in LLLT in the following areas. They are interested in the basic mechanistic studies at the cellular and tissue levels, looking at cellular chromophores and signaling pathways. They are studying excisional wound healing in mice with the basic hypothesis that LLLT can prevent initial wound expansion by encouraging fibroblast differentiation into myofibroblast cells at the edge of the wound that have a muscular phenotype and express smooth muscle actin. They are also investigating LLLT for treatment of zymosan-induced arthritis in rat knees, where swelling and inflammatory markers such as PGE2 are reduced by 810-nm light. Other projects involve using LLLT to stimulate healing of bone lesions in rat tibias, repair of achilles tendon lesions in rats, and hair regrowth in mice and humans.