Research Progress of Photodynamic Therapy in Wound Healing: A Literature Review

Abstract

Light is an efficient technique that has a significant influence on contemporary medicine. Photodynamic therapy (PDT), which involves the combined action of photosensitizers (PSs), oxygen, and light, has emerged as a therapeutically promising method for treating a broad variety of solid tumors and infectious diseases. Photodynamic therapy is minimally invasive, has few side effects, lightens scars, and reduces tissue loss while preserving organ structure and function. In particular, PDT has a high healing potential for wounds (PDT stimulates wound healing by enhancing re-epithelialization, promoting angiogenesis as well as modulating skin homeostasis). Wound healing involves interactions between many different processes, including coagulation, inflammation, angiogenesis, cellular migration, and proliferation. Poor wound healing with diabetes or extensive burns remains a difficult challenge. This review emphasizes PDT as a potential research field and summarizes PDT's role in wound healing, including normal wounds, chronic wounds, and aging wounds.