Background:Alopecia areata (AA) is considered as a T-cell mediated autoimmune disorder. The 308-nm excimer laser is thought to be capable of inducing T-cell apoptosis in vitro, suggesting that the 308-nm excimer lamp (not laser) might be effective for the treatment of AA. We examined the effectiveness of the 308-nm excimer lamp for treating AA.Materials and Methods:We treated 16 patients with single AA and multiple AA (MAA). The lesions were irradiated with a 308-nm excimer lamp at 2-week intervals.Results:Hair regrowth was observed in 14 patients. Among them, 10 patients showed more than 50% hair re-growth. Our results suggested that the 308-nm excimer lamp system is effective and safe for the treatment of single AA and MAA.Conclusion:Our results suggest that the 308-nm excimer lamp is a good therapeutic alternative without serious side effect for treating AA.

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Alopecia areata is considered to be a T-cell mediated autoimmune disorder. The 308-nm excimer lamp is thought to be capable of inducing T-cell apoptosis in vitro, suggesting that the lamp might be effective for the treatment of alopecia areata. We examined the effectiveness of the 308-nm excimer lamp for the treatment of alopecia areata. We recruited three patients with single alopecia areata lesions that were resistant to conventional treatment. The lesions were exposed to a 308-nm excimer lamp at 2-weekly intervals. Hair regrowth was observed in all three patients after approximately 10 treatment sessions. Our study showed that exposure to the 308-nm excimer lamp effectively induced hair regrowth in solitary alopecia areata lesions. Apart from erythema, there were no significant adverse effects. Therefore, we suggest that it may be considered as a treatment modality for recalcitrant alopecia areata.

Photodynamic therapy with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid is an effective and safe treatment for actinic keratosis and superficial non-melanoma skin cancer. Further, some studies have reported good efficacy when using photodynamic therapy to treat viral warts. The light-emitting diode is an incoherent, narrow-spectrum light source. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of photodynamic therapy using a light-emitting diode for viral warts. Six patients with a total of 41 foot and hand warts were recruited in this study. They were treated with 20% 5-aminolevulinic acid cream under occlusion for 5 h. Thereafter, the treated area was irradiated with the light from a red light-emitting diode (633 +/- 6 nm) with a dose of 126 J/cm(2). This treatment was repeated at 2- or 3-week intervals. The rate of improvement observed in patients was 68.3%. The adverse effects included mild to moderate pain and erythema, which was well-tolerated by all six patients. No patients withdrew from the study due to the adverse effects. Photodynamic therapy with topical 5-aminolevulinic acid using the light from a red light-emitting diode has the advantage of non-invasiveness, minimal associated adverse reactions, and production of good results in a significant proportion of cases: therefore, it is an alternative treatment for recalcitrant viral warts.

Dispersal is a topic of great interest in ecology. Many organisms adopt one of two distinct dispersal tactics at reproduction: the production of small offspring that can disperse over long distances (such as seeds and spawned eggs), or budding. The latter is observed in some colonial organisms, such as clonal plants, corals and ants, in which (super)organisms split their body into components of relatively large size that disperse to a short distance. Contrary to the common dispersal viewpoint, short-dispersal colonial organisms often flourish even in environments with frequent disturbances. In this paper, we investigate the conditions that favor budding over long-distance dispersal of small offspring, focusing on the life history of the colony growth and the colony division ratio. These conditions are the relatively high mortality of very small colonies, logistic growth, the ability of dispersers to peacefully seek and settle unoccupied spaces, and small spatial scale of environmental disturbance. If these conditions hold, budding is advantageous even when environmental disturbance is frequent. These results suggest that the demography or life history of the colony underlies the behaviors of the colonial organisms.