Artificial sunlight irradiation induces ultraweak photon emission in human skin fibroblasts

J Photochem Photobiol B. 1993 May;18(2-3):281-5. doi: 10.1016/1011-1344(93)80076-l.

Abstract

Photons participate in many atomic and molecular interactions and changes in the physical universe. In recent years sophisticated detection procedures for the measurement of ultraweak photons in a variety of different cells have been performed leading to the conclusion that plant, animal and human cells emit ultraweak photons. Using an extremely low-noise, high-sensitive photon-counting system, which allows maximal exploitation of the potential capabilities of a photomultiplier tube, ultraweak photons were quantitated in human skin fibroblasts. It was found that light from an artificial sunlight source induces ultraweak photon emission in these cells. However, the results demonstrate that this induction is significantly lower in normal fibroblasts compared with those obtained from a donor suffering from xeroderma pigmentosum disease group A, a disease characterized by deficient repair of DNA. The largest increase in ultraweak photon emission after UV exposure was measured in mitomycin-C-induced post-mitotic xeroderma pigmentosum cells which showed 10-20 times higher ultraweak photon intensities than mitotic UV-irradiated normal cells. These data suggest that xeroderma pigmentosum cells tend to lose the capacity of efficient storage of ultraweak photons, indicating the existence of an efficient intracellular photon trapping system within human cells.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Cell Line
  • DNA Repair
  • Fibroblasts / cytology
  • Fibroblasts / pathology
  • Fibroblasts / radiation effects
  • Humans
  • Mitosis
  • Radiation
  • Reference Values
  • Skin / cytology
  • Skin / pathology
  • Skin / radiation effects*
  • Sunlight*
  • Xeroderma Pigmentosum