Effect of photobiomodulation therapy on inflammatory cytokines in healing dynamics of diabetic wounds: a systematic review of preclinical studies

Abstract

Context

Delayed wound healing in diabetes mellitus (DM) is due to the overlapping phases of the healing process. The prolonged inflammation and altered levels of inflammatory cytokines lead to deformed cell proliferation. Photobiomodulation alleviates the expression of inflammatory cytokines and promotes tissue repair, thereby restoring the wound healing process.

Objective

To find out the effect of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) in the healing dynamics of diabetic wounds with particular emphasis on interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, and tumour necrosis factor-α.

Methods

Scientific databases searched using keywords of the population: DM, intervention: PBMT, and outcomes: inflammatory cytokines.

Results

We have included five preclinical studies in the present systematic review for qualitative analysis. These studies evaluated the effect of PBMT at different wavelengths, dosage, and time on wound healing in DM.

Conclusions

The systematic review concludes that PBMT regulates inflammatory cytokines levels, enhances cell proliferation, and migration, thereby improving the wound healing properties.

Keywords:

• Photobiomodulation therapy
• wound healing in diabetes mellitus
• pro-inflammatory cytokines
• anti-inflammatory cytokines
• inflammatory response

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the Centre for Diabetic Foot Care and Research (CDFCR), Department of Physiotherapy, Manipal College of Health Professions (MCHP), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE)-Manipal for their all-round support.

Author contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Conceptualisation: GK and GAM; methodology: MR KG; formal analysis and investigation: SA; writing – initial draft preparation GK and GAM; writing – review and editing: PA and NH; resources: SUK and SS; supervision: GAM. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethical approval

The article does not contain any human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Data availability statement

The present paper is a review paper. Hence, data sharing does not apply to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.