Quantitative analysis on PUVA-induced skin photodamages using optical coherence tomography

Abstract

Psoralen plus ultraviolet A radiation (PUVA) therapy is a very important clinical treatment of skin diseases such as vitiligo and psoriasis, but associated with an increased risk of skin photodamages especially photoaging. Since skin biopsy alters the original skin morphology and always requires an iatrogenic trauma, optical coherence tomography (OCT) appears to be a promising technique to study skin damage in vivo. In this study, the Balb/c mice had 8-methoxypsralen (8-MOP) treatment prior to UVA radiation was used as PUVA-induced photo-damaged modal. The OCT imaging of photo-damaged group (modal) and normal group (control) in vivo was obtained of mice dorsal skin at 0, 24, 48, 72 hours after irradiation respectively. And then the results were quantitatively analyzed combined with histological information. The experimental results showed that, PUVA-induced photo-damaged skin had an increase in epidermal thickness (ET), a reduction of attenuation coefficient in OCT images signal, and an increase in brightness of the epidermis layer compared with the control group. In conclusion, noninvasive high-resolution imaging techniques such as OCT may be a promising tool for photobiological studies aimed at assessing photo-damage and repair processes in vivo. It can be used to quantitative analysis of changes in photo-damaged skin, such as the ET and collagen in dermis, provides a theoretical basis for treatment and prevention of skin photodamages.