Personalized wound healing possible with electrical stimulation patches, researchers note
22 Apr 2022 --- The US-based Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation is releasing research that shows a flexible, antibacterial hydrogel-ePatch allows for tailored, high-efficiency wound healing. “Our patch provides an electrical stimulation-delivery platform for personalized skincare,” Wujin Sun, assistant professor of biological systems engineering at US-based Virginia Tech, tells PersonalCareInsights.
“The electric field generation device is portable, wireless, small and light-weighted. The application of the device will not affect the physical activities of the patients and can minimize patient interventions.”
“In addition, its printability enables personalized patterning, which broadens its applicability for various types of wounds with different volumes and areas,” Sun continues. “The current mainstream approach for skincare is to apply chemicals or biological to the skin. Our device shows people that physical stimulations are also effective in skincare.”
Enhancing accessibility and wound healing methods
Wounds have affected millions of people in the US. Patients with underlying health issues can develop chronic wounds, which may remain non healing for months or years, Sun explains.
“Considering this, developing an efficient approach for long-term wound care is highly desirable.”
Traditional wound healing options include dressings, negative pressure bandages, growth factor-based and anti-inflammatory medicines and ultrasound treatments. However, the average duration for complete wound healing using these methods is 12 weeks, even under ideal circumstances.
Electrical stimulation is a biomimicking way to accelerate wound healing. However, traditional bulky and rigid electrodes limit their applications, explains Sun.
“In our design, we addressed this issue by patterning conductive hydrogel on a stretchable wound dressing to achieve flexibility and lightweightness. In addition, the low cost of raw materials and facile fabrication process can improve the accessibility of this treatment, especially for patients in rural regions.”
Investigating the effectiveness of the e-Patch
Several sets of experiments confirmed the benefits of the e-Patch. Researchers found the e-Patch had better electrode stability and conductivity, while strain tests revealed that the e-Patch could withstand normal skin deformation.
According to researchers, electrical stimulation is a biomimicking way to accelerate wound healing (Credit: Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation).Tests conducted on cells cultured on the e-Patch showed that the patch pulsed with electrical field (EF) stimulation exhibited significantly faster cellular proliferation, migration, aggregation and alignment, and increased secretion of growth factors, all contributing to faster wound healing.
“Animal studies show that applying electric stimulation reduces the wound healing process from twenty to seven days. Our design is quite promising for clinical applications,” says Sun.
Animal model tests on rats with open wounds were conducted, and the results revealed that the e-Patch significantly accelerated wound healing. The EF-stimulated e-Patch had a faster wound-healing process. While also having a more directed healing process, which resulted in less scarring, the deposition of regular skin layers, and hair growth after wound closure.
The antibacterial capabilities of the silver nanowire electrodes utilized in the e-Patches were validated in further tests, and this property was shown to be independent of the amount of EF stimulation provided.
Giving insight into the products’ suitability for surgical scars and dermatologists, Sun explains: “Our patch uses silicone substrate from ScarAway. It is supposed to be suitable for reducing scars. However, we did not evaluate that in this study. We would like to have further investigations in the future.”
Skin regeneration and wound healing
Industry players have been tapping into skin regeneration solutions and “scarless” wound healing. In this space, a Japanese University study found scarless skin wound healing may be possible after surgical procedures, through an animal study.
A separate study from the University of Bristol, UK, unveiled that protein p53 can accelerate tissue repair due to its impact on epithelial migration, increasing wound healing duration. Meanwhile, the Global Stem Cells Group discovered a skin-regenerating solution derived from umbilical cord stem cells.
By Nicole Kerr
