It would be more than one hundred years before its physiological role would be established. An in vivo action spectrum indicated UCA as a photoreceptor for UV-induced immunosuppression. In this Symposium, John Simon addresses the interesting photochemistry of this molecule. Johan Garssen extends the UCA model to study its role in infectious disease. E. De Fabo addresses the mechanism of UV-induced immune suppression by UCA with emphasis on the initiating events.
Malignant melanoma is the deadliest form of human skin cancer.
Recent studies have provided important clues to the involvement of UV radiation and the genes that predispose to malignant melanoma in genetically susceptible individuals. In this symposium various effects of photodynamic treatment of cells and cellular organelles will be reviewed and discussed. The emphasis will be on events that play a role in signal transduction or are induced in the cells by these events. The best known event in PDT is of course apoptosis, and 2 of the contributions are related to this mode of cell death. In other contributions the possibilities of receptor targeting will be discussed, and the modulation of cytokine expression.