The effects of lasers on fibroblast activity and subsequent cell proliferation have been shown to have mixed results:
Positive e.g.
- May et al. 2018
- Moore et al. 2005
No response e.g.
- Abrahamse et al. 2010
- Pereira et al. 2002
Inhibitory response e.g.
- Tada et al. 2009
- Hawkins et al. 2005
This variance in results is likely due to the actual effects of laser. In that laser can have the effect of increased cell proliferation (i.e. more) at low doses and inhibition at higher doses. It would seem sensible that there would be a ‘middle ground’. Although all of the authors above (among others) initially tried for a specific response it does show that laser is more complex than it would initially appear.
Ma et al. (2018) stated the difference in results were likely due to which laser parameters were chosen i.e. dose and wave length (their positive results came from 830 nm at 60 J/cm2)
How does laser positively affect fibroblasts?
- Increasing mitochondrial ATP production
- Vitalising macromolecules
- Initiate conformation changes in proteins
- Transfer energy to electrons
- Affect the metabolic pathway involving redox chains
Below are 2 images taken from Ma et al. (2018) showing increased cell production with a before and after slide
Before
After
As can be seen the increase is very significant