ORGANELLE-SPECIFIC INJURY TO MELANIN-CONTAINING CELLS IN HUMAN-SKIN BY PULSED LASER IRRADIATION

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  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 49  (6) , 680-685
Abstract
Physical models predict that UV laser radiation of appropriately brief pulses can selectively alter melanin-containing cellular targets in human skin. Skin of normal human volunteers was exposed to brief (20 ns) 351-nm wave length pulses from a XeF excimer laser, predicting that those cells containing the greatest quantities of melanized melanosomes (lower half of the epidermis) would be selectively damaged. Transmission electron microscopy revealed the earliest cellular alteration to be immediate disruption of melanosomes, both within melanocytes and basal keratinocytes. This disruption was dose dependent and culminated in striking degenerative changes in these cells. Superficial keratinocytes and Langerhans cells were not affected. Evidently, the XeF excimer laser is capable of organelle-specific injury to melanosomes. These findings may have important clinical implications in the treatment of both benign and malignant pigmented lesions by laser radiations of defined wave lengths and pulse durations.