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Efficacy of photobiomodulation therapy on healing of ionizing irradiated bone: a systematic review of in vivo animal studies

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Abstract

This systematic review aimed to answer the research focused question: What are the effects of photobiomodulation (PBM) therapy on bone healing after ionizing irradiation in animal models? The EMBASE, LILACS, LIVIVO, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, including gray literature, were searched using the following keywords: "Head and Neck Neoplasms"; "Ionizing Radiation"; "Low-Level Light Therapy"; and "Bone regeneration", focusing on the primary studies that assessed the effects of PBM therapy on animal models of irradiated bone. Six studies have met the eligibility criteria and presented an overall regular quality according to the risk of bias assessment tools. All the studies utilized rat animal model and near-infrared laser PBM at low power output setting. Most of the studies showed increased new bone formation, osteocytes, osteoblasts, and vascularization networking, as a result of PBM therapy. However, only one out of the six studies has not shown any differences in bone healing in both lased and non-lased animal groups. Nevertheless, PBM therapy is a potential tool to improve bone healing induced by ionizing radiation. However, due to the scarce number of studies and the great variability of laser parameters and treatment protocols, a clear conclusion cannot be drawn. Hence, extensive preclinical in vivo studies are warranted to ensure these beneficial effects have been addressed prior to translational clinical trials.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the funding agency Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior — Brasil (CAPES) — Finance Code 001 for the scholarships of SVO and TdR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Stomatology, School of Dentistry of the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Av. Prof. Lineu Prestes, 2227 – Butantã, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Samanta Vicente de Oliveira, Thaís dos Reis & Camila Barros Gallo

  2. Laboratory of Oral Histopathology, Health Sciences Faculty of the University of Brasília, Brasilia, DF, Brazil

    Juliana Amorim, Flaviana Soares Rocha & Eliete Silva Guerra

  3. Post Graduation Program, School of Dentistry, Ibirapuera University, Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Márcia Martins Marques

  4. Department of Surgical Sciences and Integrated Diagnostics, Laser Therapy Centre of the University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy

    Reem Hanna

  5. Department of Oral Surgery, King’s College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK

    Reem Hanna

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  1. Samanta Vicente de Oliveira
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de Oliveira, S.V., dos Reis, T., Amorim, J. et al. Efficacy of photobiomodulation therapy on healing of ionizing irradiated bone: a systematic review of in vivo animal studies. Lasers Med Sci 37, 3379–3392 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-022-03649-2

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