Indications and action mechanisms of phototherapy.

Type:Uv phototherapy Time:2017-10-11 10:35:00

Recently phototherapy has become one of the most commonly used modalities for the treatment of a variety of skin

diseases, although the action mechanisms have not been fully understood. The inhibitory effect of UVR on DNA synthesis

may be one of the actions for proliferating skin diseases. However, phototherapy is also used for the treatment of

allergic or autoimmune diseases. It has been confirmed that the skin is an important immunologic organ whose

constitutive cells are all involved in immunologic reactions. We have investigated the effects of PUVA and UVB

radiation on the immunocompetent cells, including Langerhans cells, T lymphocytes, mast cells, endothelial cells and

natural killer cells. Exposure to UVR inhibits contact sensitization to haptens applied not only to the irradiated

skin area but also to the non-irradiated distant skin when the exposure dose is relatively high and/or the application

skin area is large. In addition, hapten-specific tolerance develops by the generation of suppressor T cells.

Phototherapy is also useful for immediate type hypersensitivity such as urticaria. Action mode in the case may be the

inhibitory effects of UVR on histamine release from mast cells. The results obtained from these experiments suggest

that phototherapy exerts its anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory effects through immunosuppression.

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