Effects of blue light on inflammation and skin barrier recovery following acute perturbation. Pilot study results in healthy human subjects

Abstract

Background/purpose

While growing evidence supports the therapeutic effect of 453 nm blue light in chronic inflammatory skin diseases, data on its effects on acutely-perturbed human skin are scarce. In this study we investigated the impact of 453 nm narrow-band LED light on healthy skin following acute perturbation.

Methods

Tape stripping and histamine iontophoresis were performed on the forearm of 22 healthy volunteers on two consecutive weeks. In one week, challenges were followed by irradiation for 30 minutes. In the other week (control), no light was administered. Reactions were evaluated up to 72 hours thereafter by transepidermal water loss (TEWL), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy, and skin surface biomarkers.

Results

Skin barrier disruption resulted in upregulation of IL-1α at 24 hours after tape stripping (p=0.029). In contrast, irradiation abrogated this effect (p>0.05). Irradiation also resulted in higher TEWL at 24 hours and in higher b* value at 72 hours after tape stripping compared to the control (p=0.034 and p=0.018, respectively). At 30 minutes following histamine iontophoresis and irradiation, a trend towards a higher a* value compared to the control was observed (p=0.051).

Conclusion

We provide the first, in vivo evidence that blue light at 453 nm exerts biological effects on acutely-perturbed healthy human skin.

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