Gene Profiling Analysis of the Early Effects of Ablative Fractional Carbon Dioxide Laser Treatment on Human Skin

Background: The use of carbon dioxide (CO2) laser-mediated ablative fractional resurfacing (AFR) is currently under extensive clinical investigation, but the molecular mechanisms underlying this process are unclear.

Objectives: To determine the early expressed genes that are upregulated in human skin after treatment using a CO2 fractional laser.

Methods: Whole human skin was irradiated using an AFR CO2 laser, and changes in gene expression after 2 and 24 hours were analyzed using microarray analysis. The results were validated using reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Laser scanning confocal microscopy (LSCM) was used to investigate the expression of the validated proteins after AFR CO2 laser treatment of skin that had been biopsied from seven Korean patients.

Results: Gene expression profiling showed that the most significantly upregulated genes in these skin samples were those encoding Wnt5a, cysteine-rich angiogenic inducer 61 (CYR61), and heat shock protein (HSP) 90. These results were confirmed using real-time RT-PCR and LSCM.

Conclusions: Irradiation using an AFR laser may induce the expression of Wnt5a, CYR61, and HSP90 in human skin during the early remodeling phases, suggesting that the induction of proteins may be the preceding event that is associated with the clinical effects of laser treatment.