Abstracts

The study investigated the effects of ablative fractional laser (AFL) treatment on hedgehog pathway target gene expression in microscopic murine basal cell carcinomas, comparing it to topical vismodegib treatment. In 24 mice with 44 skin test sites, AFL significantly reduced gene expression (Gli1 72%, Gli2 55%, Ptch1 71%) compared to untreated controls. Topical vismodegib led to higher reductions (Gli1 92%, Gli2 83%, Ptch1 83%), significantly outperforming AFL for Gli1 and Gli2. Combining AFL with vismodegib did not further decrease gene expression, likely due to similar vismodegib concentrations in the skin. The study concluded that AFL alone nearly matched the gene expression reduction achieved by repeated vismodegib applications, suggesting the need for further research into AFL's mechanism of action.