Genome-wide gene expression study indicates the anti-inflammatory effect of polarized light in recurrent childhood respiratory disease.

OBJECTIVES: The clinical and molecular effects of whole-body polarized light treatment on children suffering from recurrent respiratory infection were studied. METHODS: The incidence and duration of respiratory symptoms as well as the length of appropriate antibiotic therapy were measured. Simultaneously, the genome-wide gene expression pattern was examined by whole genome cDNA microarray in peripheral lymphocytes of children. RESULTS: Twenty of 25 children showed a marked clinical improvement, while in five of 25 had poor response or no changes. The gene expression pattern of the patients' peripheral lymphocytes was compared in favorable and poor responders. The lymphocytes of the children with a documented improved clinical response to polarized light therapy showed a decrease in the expression of chemokine genes, such as CXCL1, CXCL2, CXCL3, and IL-8, and in that of the TNFα gene. On the contrary, a rapid elevation was found in the expression of the gene encoding for CYP4F2, a leukotriene B4-metabolizing enzyme. In children with poor clinical response to polarized light therapy, no similar changes were detected in the gene expression pattern of the lymphocytes. CONCLUSIONS: The improved clinical symptoms and modified gene expression profile of lymphocytes reveals an anti-inflammatory effect of whole-body polarized light irradiation.

Opposite effect of linearly polarized light on biosynthesis of interleukin-6 in a human B lymphoid cell line and peripheral human monocytes.

The effects of linearly polarized light (LPL) and diffuse light (DL) on the in vitro interleukin-6 (IL-6) production in a human B lymphoma cell line (BMNH) and peripheral monocytes of healthy volunteers were compared. Our data show that there was a significant increase of IL-6 and IgM production in BMNH after exposure to LPL. The increase in IgM secretion was a consequence of its autocrine regulation by IL-6, since in the presence of anti-IL-6 and anti-IL-6 receptor antibodies the LPL-induced IgM secretion was abolished. In contrast to the stimulatory effect on B cells, exposure of human mononuclear phagocytes to LPL markedly reduced the production of IL-6 induced by subsequent stimulation of cells with bacterial endotoxin (LPS). The inhibition as most pronounced when suboptimal doses of LPS were applied. Under identical experimental conditions, DL had no effect on the IL-6 and IgM production of either B cells or monocytes.

Effect of visible light on some cellular and immune parameters.

The biological effect of visible light of low energy density was investigated in this study. The effects of diffuse (DL) and linearly polarized (LPL) light were compared on models in vitro and in vivo. Experiments in vitro were performed on human lymphocytes to study their blast-transformation and rosette-formation abilities. Both DL and LPL increased the number of blast-transformed cells even in a lymphocyte culture without PHA, and reduced rosette-formation of T lymphocytes. LPL had a more pronounced effect. In vivo exposure to DL and LPL of the spleens of tumour-bearing mice caused the appearance of factor(s) in their serum, inhibiting the incorporation in vitro of [3H]-thymidine into the tumour cells obtained from non-exposed animals. In the other series of experiments serum samples were taken from tumorous animals after the exposure of their spleens to LPL. Following the daily administration of these sera to another group of non-exposed tumorous mice a decreasing tendency of the mitotic kinetics of ascites tumour was observed. The application of visible (preferably linearly polarized) light for the stimulation of human immune competent cells, and clinical trials with extracorporeal irradiation of blood for the promotion of natural defences of an immune-repressed organism are suggested.