Photobiomodulation therapy drives massive epigenetic histone modifications, stem cells mobilization, and accelerated epithelial healing.

Emerging evidence indicates the clinical benefits of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMT) in the management of skin and mucosal wounds. Here we decided to explore the effects of different regiments of PBMT on epithelial cells and stem cells, and the potential implications over the epigenetic circuitry during healing. Scratch-wound migration, immunofluorescence (anti-acetyl-Histone H3, anti-acetyl-CBP/p300, and anti-BMI1), nuclear morphometry, and western blotting (anti-Phospho-S6, anti-MBD2) were performed. Epithelial stem cells were identified by the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzymatic levels and sphere-forming assay. We observed that PBMT induced accelerated epithelial migration and chromatin relaxation along with increased levels of histones acetylation, the transcription co-factors CBP/p300, and mTOR. We further observed a reduction of the transcription repression-associated protein MBD2 and a reduced number of epithelial stem cells and spheres. In this study, we showed that PBMT could induce epigenetic modifications of epithelial cells and control stem cell fate, leading to an accelerated healing phenotype. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.