INTRODUCTION The use of psoralen baths with long-wave UV radiation, known as PUVA bath therapy, is useful in the treatment of psoriasis. The therapy is not associated with systemic adverse effects and the dose of UV-A radiation administered is lower. The objectives of this study aimed to identify the variables that influence the effectiveness of PUVA bath therapy and the duration of remission, ...

In patients with severe chronic atopic dermatitis (AD), both photochemotherapy [psoralen ultraviolet A (PUVA)] and narrow-band (TL-01) UV B phototherapy have been reported to be very effective. As no data exist on the relative therapeutic efficacy of these two regimens, we performed a randomized investigator-blinded half-side comparison study on 12 patients with severe chronic AD. Half-side irr...

AIM Amyloidosis is a common disorder in adults. Secondary amyloidosis in patients with mycosis fungoides (MF) after photochemotherapy with 8-methoxypsoralen followed by ultraviolet A (PUVA) treatment has not been reported. Our aim is to describe the clinical and histological features of PUVA phototherapy-induced secondary amyloidosis. MATERIALS AND METHODS Sixty-one patients with MF treated w...

Background: Palmoplantar eczema is a common clinical problem involving 2% of the population. There are many treatment modalities for palmoplantar eczema, each with specific local and systemic side effects. Objective: To evaluate methoxsalen bath in the treatment of palmoplantar eczema. Patients and Methods: In a randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled clinical trial, 60 patients with palmo...

The metabolic activation of two known olfactory mucosal (OM) toxicants, acetaminophen (AP) and 2,6-dichlorobenzonitrile (DCBN), was examined with mouse liver and OM microsomes and purified, heterologously expressed mouse CYP2A5 and CYP2G1. In reconstituted systems, both isoforms were active in metabolizing DCBN and AP to metabolites that formed protein adducts. The formation of DCBN- or AP-prot...

Chlamydia pneumoniae is a common cause of pulmonary infection, with serum positivity in at least 50% of the general population. In this study, we report that human PBMCs exposed to C. pneumoniae are resistant to apoptosis induced by the potent photoactivated chemotherapeutic agents 8-methoxypsoralen and hypericin. In contrast, PBMCs treated with a heat-inactivated inoculum exhibit normal suscep...

How polyphagous herbivores cope with the diversity and unpredictability of plant defenses remains largely unknown at both the genetic and molecular levels. To examine whether generalist counterdefense enzymes are structurally more flexible and functionally more diverse, two counterdefensive allelochemical-metabolizing cytochrome P450 proteins, CYP6B1 from the specialist Papilio polyxenes, feedi...

Specific immune serum against photo-damaged DNA with the photoadducts of 8-methoxypsoralen (8-MOP) was obtained. The antigenic determinant is a polynucleotide chain with a mono-photoadduct: a coumarin moiety of psoralen linked through a cyclobutane ring to the 5,6-bond of thymine. The specific rabbit antiserum was used in the immunofluorescence method, for the detection of photodamaged DNA in t...

BACKGROUND Various surgical procedures for correcting stable vitiligo exist but these have their own limitations. Autologous, non-cultured, non-trypsinized, melanocyte plus keratinocyte grafting is a new and simple method of vitiligo surgery. OBJECTIVE The study aimed to evaluate efficacy of a new grafting technique in vitiligo patches. METHODS Eighteen vitiligo patches underwent this proce...

pBR322 DNA/Restriction endonuclease/8-methoxypsoralen/Black light/Crosslink The pBR322 DNA was irradiated with black light in the presence of 8-methoxypsoralen and digested by various restriction endonucleases including Hin dIII and Rsa I. It was found that for every restriction enzymes examined digestion products specific for pretreated DNA appeared as expected from the inhibition of cleavage ...