Every dentist has a weapon against cancer in his office

Light waves in the blue-violet region of the spectrum accelerate the polymerization of composite plastics used in dentistry due to the fact that free radicals are formed under their action, activating the catalyst. Scientists at the University of Georgia have found that irradiation with "dental" light of malignant tumors of the oral cavity suppresses the growth of cancer cells and stimulates their death.

In the experiment, the authors used 10 mice with malignant tumors. Five animals were exposed to 90-second blue light daily for 12 days. The other animals acted as a control group.

At the end of the course of radiation, the tumors were removed and each of them was cut into 2 parts. One half of each tumor was used to prepare preparations for histological analysis, and the other half was frozen for the subsequent preparation of protein extracts.

Histological analysis showed that exposure to blue light increases the frequency of apoptosis – programmed cell death by 10%. And according to the results of the analysis of protein extracts, the procedure suppressed the growth of tumor cells by 80%.

Slowing down the growth and stimulating the death of cancer cells explains the smaller size of tumors that developed in mice of the experimental group. The authors believe that the treatment of tumors at earlier stages of development may have a more pronounced effect on apoptosis.

An important point is that the doses of blue light that are harmful to cancer cells do not have a negative effect on healthy cells. Scientists hope that over time, blue light treatment will be included in the protocols for the treatment of malignant diseases as an auxiliary component, which will reduce the doses of highly toxic chemotherapy drugs.

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru based on the materials of ScienceDaily

01.07.2008