Evaluating thermal damage induced by pulsed light with multiphoton microscopy

Nonablative skin remodeling is a new light treatment approach for photodamaged skin. Compared to ablative CO2 or Er:YAG laser resurfacing, dermabrasion, and chemical peels, the clinical objective of nonablative skin remodeling is to maximize thermal damage to upper dermis while minimizing injury to the epidermis and surrounding tissue, consequently decreasing potential complications and shortening long recuperation periods. Histological analysis of preoperative and postoperative biopsies using H&E or special stains has indicated the dermal thermal injury, which resulting in collagen denaturation, is the most important mechanism of nonablative skin remodeling for improving skin situation. And the extent of improvement of skin situation corresponded to the formation of a new band of dense, compact collagen bundles in the papillary dermis. The diversity of individual skin condition influences the choice of pulsed light treatment parameters, and further influences the degree of dermal thermal damage, thus the efficacy of nonablative skin remodeling remains unstable. Recently, multiphoton microscopy has show a promising application for monitoring skin thermal damage, because collagen could produce strong second harmonic generation (SHG). And SHG intensity is presumably proportional to the percentage of collagen in dermis. In this paper, the auto-fluorescence (AF) intensity and SHG intensity of mice skin irradiated by pulsed Nd:YAG laser were measured and imaged with multiphoton microscope, and the results show the ratio of SHG to AF decreases with the increase of irradiation exposure dose, and could be a quantitative technique to assess dermal thermal damage, and could further benefit the choice of light treatment parameters.