How electricity can heal wounds three times as fast

Date:
April 18, 2023
Source:
Chalmers University of Technology
Summary:
Chronic wounds are a major health problem for diabetic patients
and the elderly -- in extreme cases they can even lead to
amputation. Using electric stimulation, researchers have developed
a method that speeds up the healing process, making wounds heal
three times faster.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Chronic wounds are a major health problem for diabetic patients and
the elderly -- in extreme cases they can even lead to amputation. Using electric stimulation, researchers in a project at Chalmers University
of Technology, Sweden, and the University of Freiburg, Germany, have
developed a method that speeds up the healing process, making wounds
heal three times faster.


========================================================================== There is an old Swedish saying that one should never neglect a small wound
or a friend in need. For most people, a small wound does not lead to any serious complications, but many common diagnoses make wound healing far
more difficult.

People with diabetes, spinal injuries or poor blood circulation have
impaired wound healing ability. This means a greater risk of infection
and chronic wounds -- which in the long run can lead to such serious consequences as amputation.

Now a group of researchers at Chalmers and the University of Freiburg
have developed a method using electric stimulation to speed up the
healing process.

"Chronic wounds are a huge societal problem that we don't hear a lot
about. Our discovery of a method that may heal wounds up to three
times faster can be a game changer for diabetic and elderly people,
among others, who often suffer greatly from wounds that won't heal,"
says Maria Asplund, Associate Professor of Bioelectronics at Chalmers University of Technology and head of research on the project.

Electric guidance of cells for faster healing The researchers worked
from an old hypothesis that electric stimulation of damaged skin can
be used to heal wounds. The idea is that skin cells are electrotactic,
which means that they directionally 'migrate' in electric fields. This
means that if an electric field is placed in a petri dish with skin
cells, the cells stop moving randomly and start moving in the same
direction. The researchers investigated how this principle can be used to electrically guide the cells in order to make wounds heal faster. Using a
tiny engineered chip, the researchers were able to compare wound healing
in artificial skin, stimulating one wound with electricity and letting
one heal without electricity. The differences were striking.

"We were able to show that the old hypothesis about electric stimulation
can be used to make wounds heal significantly faster. In order to study
exactly how this works for wounds, we developed a kind of biochip on
which we cultured skin cells, which we then made tiny wounds in. Then
we stimulated one wound with an electric field, which clearly led to it
healing three times as fast as the wound that healed without electric stimulation," Maria Asplund says.

Hope for diabetes patients In the study, the researchers also focused
on wound healing in connection with diabetes, a growing health problem worldwide. One in 11 adults today has some form of diabetes according
to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Diabetes Federation.

"We've looked at diabetes models of wounds and investigated whether our
method could be effective even in those cases. We saw that when we mimic diabetes in the cells, the wounds on the chip heal very slowly. However,
with electric stimulation we can increase the speed of healing so that
the diabetes-affected cells almost correspond to healthy skin cells,"
Asplund says.

Individualised treatment the next step The Chalmers researchers
recently received a large grant which will allow them to continue their research in the field, and in the long run enable the development of
wound healing products for consumers on the market. Similar products
have come out before, but more basic research is required to develop
effective products that generate enough electric field strength and
stimulate in the right way for each individual. This is where Asplund
and her colleagues come into the picture: "We are now looking at how
different skin cells interact during stimulation, to take a step closer
to a realistic wound. We want to develop a concept to be able to 'scan'
wounds and adapt the stimulation based on the individual wound.

We are convinced that this is the key to effectively helping individuals
with slow-healing wounds in the future," Asplund says.

More about the study:
* "Bioelectronic microfluidic wound healing: a platform for
investigating
direct current stimulation of injured cell collectives"was published
in the journal Lab on a Chip. The article was written by Sebastian
Shaner, Anna Savelyeva, Anja Kvartuh, Nicole Jedrusik, Lukas Matter,
Jose' Leal and Maria Asplund. The researchers work at the University
of Freiburg in Germany and Chalmers University of Technology.

* In their study, the researchers showed that wound healing on
artificial
skin stimulated with electric current was three times faster than
on the skin that healed naturally. The electric field was low,
about 200 mV/mm, and did not have a negative impact on the cells.

* The method the researchers developed is based on a microfluidic
biochip
on which artificial skin can be grown, stimulated with an electric
current and studied in an effective and controlled manner. The
concept allows researchers to conduct multiple experiments in
parallel on the same chip.

* The research project began in 2018 and is funded by the European
Research
Council (ERC). The project was recently granted more funding so
the research can get one step closer to the market and the benefit
of patients.

* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Wounds_and_Healing # Skin_Care # Medical_Topics #
Diabetes
o Matter_&_Energy
# Electricity # Consumer_Electronics # Energy_Technology
# Batteries
* RELATED_TERMS
o Wound o Deep_brain_stimulation o Lead_poisoning o Delirium
o Healing o Healthy_diet o Epilepsy o Maggot_therapy

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by
Chalmers_University_of_Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Sebastian Shaner, Anna Savelyeva, Anja Kvartuh, Nicole Jedrusik,
Lukas
Matter, Jose' Leal, Maria Asplund. Bioelectronic microfluidic wound
healing: a platform for investigating direct current stimulation
of injured cell collectives. Lab on a Chip, 2023; 23 (6): 1531 DOI:
10.1039/ D2LC01045C ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230418011121.htm

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