Lung Inflammation and Light! Allergies making it hard to breath? Try light! Because certain wavelengths of light shining into the body have often been shown to reduce inflammation, this study looked at the effect on inflammation in the lungs due to allergies. They found LED light (doesn’t say the color in this abstract) was effective. The result on mice was “reduced the lung cell infiltration, the mucus production, the oedema, and the tracheal’s contractile response.” Shine with the right light!

J Biophotonics. 2017 Apr 18. doi: 10.1002/jbio.201600247. [Epub ahead of print]
Light-Emitting Diode treatment ameliorates allergic lung inflammation in experimental model of asthma induced by ovalbumin.

Siqueira VPC1, Evangelista MIS1, Dos Santos A1, Marcos RL1, Ligeiro-de-Oliveira AP1, Pavani C1, Damazo AS2, Lino-Dos-Santos-Franco A1.
Author information
Abstract
Since asthma is a multifactorial disease where treatment sometimes is not effective, new therapies that improve the respiratory discomfort of patients are of great importance. Phototherapy as Light-emitting diode (LED) has emerged as a treatment that presents good results for diseases that are characterized by inflammation. Thus, our objective was to investigate the effects of LED on lung inflammation, by an evaluation of lung cell infiltration, mucus secretion, oedema, and the production of cytokines. Male Balb/c mice were or not sensitized and challenged with ovalbumin (OVA) and treated or not with LED therapy (1 h and 4 h after each OVA challenge). Twenty-four hours after the last OVA challenge, analyzes were performed. Our results showed that LED treatment in asthmatic mice reduced the lung cell infiltration, the mucus production, the oedema, and the tracheal’s contractile response. It also increased the IL-10 and the IFN-gamma levels. The effects of LED treatment on lung inflammation may be modulated by IL-10, IFN-gamma, and by mast cells. This study may provide important information about the effects of LED, and in addition, it may open the possibility of a new approach for the treatment of asthma.
© 2017 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

KEYWORDS:
Allergic lung inflammation; Cytokines; Mast cells; Mucus production; Oedema; Photobiomodulation
PMID: 28417574 DOI: 10.1002/jbio.201600247