Accelerated Wound Healing on Skin by Electrical Stimulation with a Bioelectric Plaster

Abstract

Wound healing on skin involves cell migration and proliferation in response to endogenous electric current. External electrical stimulation by electrical equipment is used to promote these biological processes for the treatment of chronic wounds and ulcers. Miniaturization of the electrical stimulation device for wound healing on skin will make this technology more widely available. Using flexible enzymatic electrodes and stretchable hydrogel, a stretchable bioelectric plaster is fabricated with a built-in enzymatic biofuel cell (EBFC) that fits to skin and generates ionic current along the surface of the skin by enzymatic electrochemical reactions for more than 12 h. To investigate the efficacy of the fabricated bioelectric plaster, an artificial wound is made on the back skin of a live mouse and the wound healing is observed for 7 d in the presence and absence of the ionic current of the bioelectric plaster. The time course of the wound size as well as the hematoxylin and eosin staining of the skin section reveals that the ionic current of the plaster leads to faster and smoother wound healing. The present work demonstrates a proof of concept for the electrical manipulation of biological functions by EBFCs.

Soft and Ion‐Conducting Materials in Bioelectronics: From Conducting Polymers to Hydrogels

“…Electrical current at the wound site helps cell migration and proliferation and accelerates the wound‐healing process . Kai et al reported that the ionic current conducted through hydrogels promotes wound healing in vivo ( Figure ) . They show that wounds treated with a hydrogel bandage (group B) grow a thicker epidermis with a less stressed boundary compared with the control (group A).…”

“…Group A control with traditional wound dressing; group B hydrogel wound dressing; group C uses ionic stimulation through the hydrogel. Reproduced with permission . Copyright 2017, Wiley‐VCH.…”

New insights into the roles of myofibroblasts and innervation during skin healing and innovative therapies to improve scar innervation

“…Electrical stimulation (ES) or electrotherapy is a noninvasive and pain‐free treatment, known to promote skin healing, that is of growing interest. This method has beneficial effects, especially in chronic wounds and ulcers, as it stimulates cell proliferation and migration thus accelerating the healing process . It has also been shown to stimulate dermal angiogenesis and keratinocyte proliferation .…”

“…This method has beneficial effects, especially in chronic wounds and ulcers, as it stimulates cell proliferation and migration thus accelerating the healing process. [81] It has also been shown to stimulate dermal angiogenesis and keratinocyte proliferation. [82,83] The principle of ES is to mimic the endogenous electric current that occurs during wound healing and for that purpose, it is essential to establish ideal and standardized protocol parameters such as: modality, method of delivery and duration of treatment.…”

3D Printed Functional and Biological Materials on Moving Freeform Surfaces

“…The creation of seamless interfaces between biological systems and multifunctional devices is a vital step towards the fabrication of next-generation wearable devices for applications in teleoperation, [1,2] medical treatments, [3,4] health monitoring, [5–7] and even personal entertainment [8–10] . Commercial wearable devices are either rigid (e.g., smart fitness watches), or soft but with determinant shapes (e.g., haptic gloves for virtual reality applications).…”