2023-05-22 15:14:22
Associate Professor of Bioelectronics at Chalmers University of Technology, Maria Asplund, and her team developed a method that allows chronic wounds to heal up to three times faster. The method is based on an old hypothesis. It claims that electrical stimulation can be used to heal damaged skin.
The researchers discovered that skin cells are electrotactic, meaning that they move in a certain direction within electric fields. By placing an electric field in a petri dish with skin cells, they discovered that the cells no longer move randomly but in the same direction.
Healing by electrical stimulation
Asplund and her team investigated how this principle could be used to electrically conduct the cells and thus make wounds heal faster. They used a small, engineered chip to compare wound healing in artificial skin. In doing so, they treated one wound with electrical stimulation while allowing another wound to heal without electricity.
The results were promising: the wound that was stimulated with electricity healed three times faster than the wound that was treated for healing without electrical stimulation. The researchers thus discovered that electrical stimulation can be used to make wounds heal significantly faster.
Wound healing in diabetes
The researchers also investigated how electrical stimulation could be used to speed up wound healing associated with diabetes. Diabetes affects wound healing because it impairs circulation and damages nerves, leading to a decreased ability to feel pain or pressure. This means that people with diabetes may not realize they have a wound and it may go unnoticed for a long time, leading to further complications.
Because diabetes is a growing health problem worldwide, the researchers also focused on wound healing associated with this disease. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the International Diabetes Federation, one in eleven adults already has some form of diabetes. Asplund and her team found that electrical stimulation can increase the rate of wound healing, including in cells affected by diabetes, making them nearly equivalent to healthy skin cells.
The researchers recently received a substantial grant. This will allow them to continue their research and eventually market wound healing products for consumers. Asplund and her colleagues are working on a concept where wounds are “scanned” and stimulation is adjusted based on the individual wound. They believe this is the key to effectively helping people with slow-healing wounds in the future.
A possible solution
The method of electrical stimulation is not new. It has been used for decades in medical applications such as bone healing. In 2020, a group of collaborating scientists started a project in which they aim to restore the sight of blind people using electrical stimulation of the brain.
However, the researchers’ method is different because it is non-invasive and does not require surgery. It could be a more cost-effective and less painful option for patients with chronic wounds. The researchers are now working with industrial partners to develop new products for wound healing based on their method. They hope that these products will reach the market in the near future and that they will contribute to improving the quality of life of people with chronic wounds.
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