The effect of light wavelength on in vitro bilirubin photodegradation and photoisomer production.

Background: The action spectrum for bilirubin photodegradation has been intensively studied. However, questions still remain regarding which light wavelength most efficiently photodegrades bilirubin. In this study, we determined the in vitro effects of different irradiation wavelength ranges on bilirubin photodegradation.

Methods: In our in vitro method, normalized absolute irradiance levels of 4.2 × 10 photons/cm/s from light-emitting diodes (ranging from 390-530 nm) and 10-nm band-pass filters were used to irradiate bilirubin solutions (25 mg/dL in 4% human serum albumin). Bilirubin and its major photoisomer concentrations were determined; the half-life time of bilirubin (t) was calculated for each wavelength range, and the spectral characteristics for bilirubin photodegradation products were obtained for key wavelengths.

Results: The in vitro photodegradation of bilirubin at 37 °C decreased linearly as the wavelength was increased from 390 to 500 nm with t decreasing from 63 to 17 min, respectively. At 460 ± 10 nm, a significantly lower rate of photodegradation and thus higher t (31 min) than that at 500 nm (17 min) was demonstrated.

Conclusion: In our system, the optimum bilirubin photodegradation and lumirubin production rates occurred between 490 and 500 nm. Spectra shapes were remarkably similar, suggesting that lumirubin production was the major process of bilirubin photodegradation.