Radiation induces a variety of chemical processes in biological tissues. This volume is a synthesis of up-to-the-minute reviews on such photochemical and photobiological sensitized reactions with particular relevance to photomedicine. The first part gives a description of experimental techniques for the study of the primary processes after radiation absorption by biological systems. It is followed by chapters on singlet oxygen and photomedicine, considering both phototherapy and photochemotherapy. These sections also discuss the next generation of potential photosensitizing drugs.

Inhalt
Past, present and future of photosensitisers.- Primary photochemical processes.- Continuous irradiation and emission methods.- Fluorescence lifetimes of chromophores interacting with biomolecules.- Pulse radiolysis.- The photophysics and photochemistry of some dye sensitisers.- Spectral properties of hypericin-metal complexes.- Photolysis of the photosensitisers biothionol and fentichlor.- Laser flash photolysis and singlet oxygen quantum yields of anthracyclines.- Characterization of the anthralin radical by pulse radiolysis and laser photolysis.- Photophysical and photodynamic properties of new photosensitisers.- Photoacoustic spectroscopy in biomedical sciences.- Absolute determination of quantum yields of Photosensitisation by time resolved thermal lensing.- Hematoporphyrin-manganese: a contrast agent for tumors in magnetic resonance imaging.- Interactions of light with biological tissue.- Optical measurements on tissue layers.- The optical properties of tissues at 633 nanometers as related to light dosimetry in photodynamic therapy.- Applications of the change in tissue optical properties caused by the prescence of photosensitisers.- Mechanistic characterization of photosensitised reactions.- Singlet oxygen involvement in membrane photomodification.- Standards for singlet oxygen sensitization.- Biological and chemical photoproduction of hydrogen peroxide.- Cell models.- Biological target molecules and cell structures in mammalian cell photosensitization.- Porphyrin photosensitisation of mitochondria.- Nuclear damage in mammalian cell photosensitization.- Biological implications of lesions introduced into DNA by singlet oxygen.- Damage to DNA repair in Murine L929 fibroblasts induced by the photodynamic action of HPD.- Photoinactivation of cells studied by 31P-NMR.-Sunlight, melanogenesis, and free radicals in the skin.- Pulsed irradiation studies of some reactions of melanin precursors.- Melanin and photoprotection.- Pigmentogenic effects of psoralens.- Melanogenesis and light regulated experimental carcinogenesis.- Role of melanins and drugs in cutaneous photosensitivity.- Skin and related photoreactions.- Phototherapy for pruritus in primary biliary cirrhosis.- Psoralens: a review.- Mutagenesis of psoralens on eukaryotic cells.- Bichromophoric systems to study the base-psoralen photoreactions.- Photophysical behaviour of 5-methoxypsoralen in different solvent systems.- Furocoumarin photosensitized reations with fatty acids.- Furocoumarin photosensitisation: wavelength dependence of monoadduct and crosslink formation in yeast.- The use of animal models for human risk assessment of psoralen photocarcinogenesis.- Phototherapy and PUVA therapy.- Ocular phototoxicity.- Ocular protection for patients undergoing PUVA or photodynamic therapy.- Diseases associated with defective tetrapyrrole metabolism: porphyria and hyperbilirubinemia.- Photophysical and related aspects of haematoporphyrin and related systems.- Photophysical properties of chlorin derivatives of haematoporphyrin.- Insoluble polymer-supported porphyrins as photosensitisers.- Water-soluble metal napthalocyanines as potential photosensitisers.- HPDs chemical and biophysical studies.- Studies of Photofrin II - induced photosensitisation of human red blood cells: variability between blood samples.- In vitro uptake and photodynamic action of tetra (3-hydroxyphenyl) porphyrin in cells.- Quantitative aspects of the interaction of porphyrins with cells.- Uptake of the anticancer porphyrin mixture Photofrin II by human fibroblasts from low density lipoprotein, high density lipoprotein and albumin.- Parameters influencing photodynamic selectivity of normal progenitors vs leukemia cells.- Porphyrin-protein interaction.- Photomodification of porphyrins in biological systems.- Photoradiation therapy of rodent tumors.- Targets of porphyrins photodynamic action in vivo.- Phthalocyanines as sensitisers for photodynamic therapy of cancer.- Pulsed laser studies of aluminium phthalocyanine derivatives.- Zn-phthalocyanine as a possible phototherapeutic agent for tumors.- Photochemotherapy - clinical aspects.- In vivo fluorescence from mouse skin: spectral evidence for the presence of chlorophyll derivatives.- DHE uptake and PDT response in an in vitro tumor model.- Fluorescence diagnosis and photodynamic therapy evaluation of sensitisers by comparison of their pharmacokinetics.- In vivo aspects of PDT.- Alternative synthesis of DHE analogues.- New photosensitisers for PDT.- A dose response study of two purpurins on the AY-27 rat bladder tumor.- In vivo cytotoxicity of metallopurpurins to bladder tumors.- Potential phototoxicity in the photosensitive patient.- Participants.