Nature's Electric Potential: A Systematic Review of the Role of Bioelectricity in Wound Healing and Regenerative Processes in Animals, Humans, and Plants

Abstract

Natural endogenous voltage gradients not only predict and correlate with growth and development but also drive wound healing and regeneration processes. This review summarizes the existing literature for the nature, sources, and transmission of information-bearing bioelectric signals involved in controlling wound healing and regeneration in animals, humans, and plants. It emerges that some bioelectric characteristics occur ubiquitously in a range of animal and plant species. However, the limits of similarities are probed to give a realistic assessment of future areas to be explored. Major gaps remain in our knowledge of the mechanistic basis for these processes, on which regenerative therapies ultimately depend. In relation to this, it is concluded that the mapping of voltage patterns and the processes generating them is a promising future research focus, to probe three aspects: the role of wound/regeneration currents in relation to morphology; the role of endogenous flux changes in driving wound healing and regeneration; and the mapping of patterns in organisms of extreme longevity, in contrast with the aberrant voltage patterns underlying impaired healing, to inform interventions aimed at restoring them.

Electric-Induced Reversal of Morphogenesis in Hydra

“…Electrical processes also play important roles in morphogenesis; it has been demonstrated that endogenous voltage gradients drive wound healing in animals (including humans) and plants (14,15). The electrical processes in cells, even those that are not electrically excitable, seem to play a regulatory role and are integrated during embryogenesis with the biochemical signals (7,(16)(17)(18).…”

“…The electrical processes in cells, even those that are not electrically excitable, seem to play a regulatory role and are integrated during embryogenesis with the biochemical signals (7,(16)(17)(18). The connection between bioelectric processes and other processes leading to cell proliferation, motility, and apoptosis in morphogenesis during development and cancer is beginning to be elucidated (7,14,19).…”

“…These attempts have a rich history going back to Roux (21), who applied external electric fields to developing eggs already in the 19th century. More recently, applications of external electric fields showed that different cell types respond to the external field in a positional-sensitive manner, leading to directional cell migration and cell proliferation affecting morphogenesis (14). In animals, it has been demonstrated that the application of electric fields leads to regeneration of limb form, including muscle, nerve, and cartilage in amputated forelimbs of animals, which do not normally regenerate them, such as Xenopus and rats (14).…”

“…More recently, applications of external electric fields showed that different cell types respond to the external field in a positional-sensitive manner, leading to directional cell migration and cell proliferation affecting morphogenesis (14). In animals, it has been demonstrated that the application of electric fields leads to regeneration of limb form, including muscle, nerve, and cartilage in amputated forelimbs of animals, which do not normally regenerate them, such as Xenopus and rats (14). External electric fields were also utilized to demonstrate that they can affect the polarity of the body axis via directing charged morphogens (22).…”

Неинвазивное Измерение Биоэлектрических Потенциалов Растений

“…Инвазивная установка электродов, сопряженная с повреждением тканей, может приводить к существенному изменению БЭП, которые в этой ситуации отражают не физиологические, а стрессовые процессы в организме [11]. Так, широко известные методы регистрации БЭП в теле человека -электрокардиография и электроэнцефалография, используемые для регистрации и исследования электрических процессов, протекающих при работе сердца и мозга, -базируются именно на установке неинвазивных электрических контактов.…”