Figure 6.

5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) photodynamic therapy (PDT) inhibits the inflammatory response. (a) Representative haematoxylin–eosin stained images of the injury site for each group. The black arrows indicate inflammatory cells. Scale bars: 250 μm (main images) and 50 μm (insets). (b) Quantitative determination of the number of inflammatory cells for each group (500 × 500 pixels/field). (c–f) Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of skin wound sections at day 5 post-operation. (c) Representative images of IHC staining of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-23 (IL-23) and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). The red arrows indicate the positive cells. Scale bars: 50 μm. Quantitative counts of (d) TNF-α positive cells, (e) IL-23 positive cells and (f) IL-1β positive cells per field (500 × 500 pixels/field). Statistical analysis: ^**p < 0.01, ^*p < 0.05