Chalmers University of Technology
Electric fields can heal wounds
Scientists at the University of Freiburg developed, last March, a microchip that allows wounds to heal up to three times faster than usual using just one secret ingredient – electricity. Purpose is to help individuals with slow healing wounds.
Knowing that electric fields can guide the movement of body cells, scientists at University of Freiburg and Chalmers University of Technology sought to test this effect, developing a microship specially designed to heal wounds up to three times faster through the use of electric currents.
The search, published at the Lab on a Chip in March, is especially aimed at the elderly or individuals with diabetes or poor blood circulation, whose chronic wounds take long periods of time to heal.
“Chronic injuries are a huge social problem that we don’t hear much about,” he says. Maria Asplundresearcher in bioelectronics at the University of Fiburgo and corresponding author of the article.
According to Science Alertwounds that take longer to heal are at greater risk of infectionsomething that consequently delays the healing time even further – a problem that, in extreme cases, can lead to amputation.
With this problem in mind, the researchers developed a bioelectronic platform and used it to create artificial skin, made of keratinocytesthe most common cells present in the skin and essential for the healing process.
When compared to applying electricity to both sides of the wound, the application of electric fields from one side only proved to be the most effective way to heal faster the artificial skin used for testing.
Both healthy keratinocytes and those that were made to resemble the cells of individuals with diabetes were cured. three times faster than cells that did not experience electrical interference. The used electric field of 200 mV/mm (millivolts per millimeter) is considered lownot having a negative impact on cells.
After testing electricity on artificial skin, the next goal of researchers will be to test its application on human and living skin, ideally, according to Asplundcustomizing wound care.
“We want to develop something that is capable of examining wounds and adapting stimulation based on the specific wound”, says the scientist, underlining that the team “believes that this is the key to helping individuals with slow healing wounds in the future”.
ZAP // 
