Neovascularization effect with He-Ne laser in the rat trachea.
The tracheal tissue of a rat was heterotopically transplanted beneath the abdominal skin of a syngenetic rat, and the transplanted graft was irradiated with a He-Ne laser (2.41 J/cm2). Four or seven days following transplantation, Chinese ink staining was used to ascertain the number of newly generated vessels. Rats sacrificed on day 4 were divided into 3 groups, according to the number of laser irradiation treatments: A0, A2, and A4. Similarly, rats sacrificed on day 7 were divided into groups B0, B2, and B4. Among the A groups, vascular counts were 49.5 +/- 31.1 in group A0 (n = 6), 108.9 +/- 34.7 in group A2 (n = 7), and 90.9 +/- 24.6 in group A4 (n = 4). Neovascularization was significantly more pronounced in the irradiated groups that in the non-irradiated group. In the B groups, vascular counts were 148 +/- 58 in group B0 (n = 6), 146 +/- 56 in group B2 (n = 5), and 147 +/- 49 in group B4 (n = 5). There was no significant difference between the irradiated and non-irradiated B groups. Laser irradiation was determined to stimulate neovascularization, and the possibility of a clinical application for this procedure was suggested.