Laser enhancement in hepatic regeneration for partially hepatectomized rats

Background and Objective The bio‐stimulation effect of laser has been observed in many areas of Medicine. However, there are a few works which investigate its use for liver regeneration. Most of their results were inconclusive due to the use of high power lasers . This work was carried out to investigate the bio‐stimulation effect of laser in liver regeneration using low power lasers. Study Design/Materials and Methods We used Wistar male rats, which were irradiated with laser light (wavelength 590 nm and intensity of 50 mW/cm 2 ) for 5 minutes after 70% hepatectomy. The respiratory mitochondrial activity, the serum level of aminotransferase and the PCNA were measured. Results Our results show a dramatic increase in the mitochondrial activity for the laser treated group at 24 hours after the hepatectomy. Conclusions We conclude that the laser promotes a bio‐stimulation effect on the early stages of liver regeneration without any detectable damage of the cells. Lasers Surg. Med. 29:73–77, 2001. © 2001 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.