Determining the Safety and Efficacy for Combined Pulsed Laser and Topical Delivery of Rapamycin
and Axitinib to Inhibit the Regeneration of Coagulated Blood Vessels
Maisie Cai
Mentor: Wangcun Jia
Port-wine stains (PWS) are vascular birthmarks caused by dilated post-capillary venules near the surface of
the skin. The dilation might be induced by a lack of innervation from surrounding neurons, which regulate
blood flow in blood vessels. If PWS are left untreated, they may become dark and thick with the potential
development of vascular nodules. The increase in tissue mass can cause deformity, bleeding, or inhibit sight
or speech if it is near the eyes or mouth. The current method to remove PWS is pulsed dye laser treatment;
however, regeneration of blood vessels usually occurs within a month. Therefore, to improve on the
treatment, antiangiogenic drugs, Rapamycin (RPM) and Axitinib (AXI), are used in conjunction with pulse
dye laser to permanently inhibit regrowth of the blood vessels. To test RPM and AXI, topical formula of the
drugs were applied onto the skin of Golden Syrian hamsters that were pretreated with pulse dye laser to
remove certain blood vessels. The two study groups were: (1) 1% AXI, and (2) 1% AXI/1% RPM. To
determine the efficacy of the drugs, color and laser speckle images were taken and analyzed to determine
which vessels have been completely removed. Although neither of the groups presented complete removal of
the vessels, the second group showed the most promising results. This led to the conclusion that a
combination of drugs along with pulse dye laser treatment is more effective in treating PWS than one drug
alone with pulse dye laser treatment.