
Materials science and engineering professor Xudong Wang fits a new wound dressing around the wrist of graduate student Yin Long. The device stimulates healing using electricity generated from the body’s natural motions. PHOTO BY SAM MILLION-WEAVER
A new, low-cost wound dressing developed by University of Wisconsin–Madison engineers could dramatically speed up healing in a surprising way.
The method leverages energy generated from a patient’s own body motions to apply gentle electrical pulses at the site of an injury.
In rodent tests, the dressings reduced healing times to a mere three days compared to nearly two weeks for the normal healing process.
“We were surprised to see such a fast recovery rate,” says Xudong Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at UW–Madison. “We suspected that the devices would produce some effect, but the magnitude was much more than we expected.”
Wang and collaborators described their wound dressing method today (Nov. 29, 2018) in the journal ACS Nano.
Researchers have known for several decades that electricity can be beneficial for skin healing, but most electrotherapy units in use today require bulky electrical equipment and complicated wiring to deliver powerful jolts of electricity.
“Acute and chronic wounds represent a substantial burden in healthcare worldwide,” says collaborator Angela Gibson, professor of surgery at UW–Madison and a burn surgeon and director of wound healing services at UW Health. “The use of electrical stimulation in wound healing is uncommon.”
In contrast with existing methods, the new dressing is much more straightforward.
“Our device is as convenient as a bandage you put on your skin,” says Wang.
The new dressings consist of small electrodes for the injury site that are linked to a band holding energy-harvesting units called nanogenerators, which are looped around a wearer’s torso. The natural expansion and contraction of the wearer’s ribcage during breathing powers the nanogenerators, which deliver low-intensity electric pulses.
“The nature of these electrical pulses is similar to the way the body generates an internal electric field,” says Wang.
And, those low-power pulses won’t harm healthy tissue like traditional, high-power electrotherapy devices might.
In fact, the researchers showed that exposing cells to high-energy electrical pulses caused them to produce almost five times more reactive oxygen species — major risk factors for cancer and cellular aging — than did cells that were exposed to the nanogenerators.
Also a boon to healing: They determined that the low-power pulses boosted viability for a type of skin cell called fibroblasts, and exposure to the nanogenerator’s pulses encouraged fibroblasts to line up (a crucial step in wound healing) and produce more biochemical substances that promote tissue growth.
“These findings are very exciting,” says collaborator Weibo Cai, a professor of radiology at UW–Madison. “The detailed mechanisms will still need to be elucidated in future work.”
In that vein, the researchers aim to tease out precisely how the gentle pulses aid in healing. The scientists also plan to test the devices on pig skin, which closely mimics human tissue.
And, they are working to give the nanogenerators additional capabilities—tweaking their structure to allow for energy harvesting from small imperceptible twitches in the skin or the thrumming pulse of a heartbeat.
“The impressive results in this study represent an exciting new spin on electrical stimulation for many different wound types, given the simplicity of the design,” says Gibson, who will collaborate with the team to confirm the reproducibility of these results in human skin models.
If the team is successful, the devices could help solve a major challenge for modern medicine.
“We think our nanogenerator could be the most effective electrical stimulation approach for many therapeutic purposes,” says Wang.
And because the nanogenerators consist of relatively common materials, price won’t be an issue.
“I don’t think the cost will be much more than a regular bandage,” says Wang. “The device in itself is very simple and convenient to fabricate.”
Learn more: It’s not a shock: Better bandage promotes powerful healing
The Latest on: Wound healing
via Google News
The Latest on: Wound healing
- GUEST ESSAY: Glens Falls Hospital's wound center can provide help when it's neededon January 24, 2021 at 3:30 am
Glens Falls Hospital is happy to announce that our Wound Healing Center has been named a 2020 Center of Distinction 2020 by Healogics, the country’s leader in wound care and ...
- SMCH opens Wound Care Clinicon January 22, 2021 at 10:46 pm
People who suffer from things like ulcers, infected wounds or crush injuries can now find treatment at a new clinic in Lake City. The Wound Care Clinic at Stewart Memorial Community Hospital, 1301 W.
- Wound Debridement Market |Opportunities, Size, Share, Emerging Trends, Technological Innovation and Forecasts To 2025on January 22, 2021 at 10:31 am
Factors such as rising incidence of diabetes & associated wounds, an increase in the volume of surgical procedures and growing geriatric population are driving the growth of the wound debridement ...
- Wound Dressings Market to Show Outstanding Growth By 2025 - Profiling Global Players Industry Developments, Outlook, Current Trendson January 22, 2021 at 12:46 am
The report offers overview of leading companies encompassing their successful marketing strategies, market contribution, recent developments in both historic and present contexts. The major factors ...
- How Morton Hospital's Center for Wound Healing helps non-healing woundson January 21, 2021 at 5:42 am
Left untreated, foot or leg wounds may result in limited mobility, lower quality of life and possible amputation.
- New insights into wound healing processon January 19, 2021 at 8:24 am
Biomedical engineers developed a technique to observe wound healing in real time, discovering a central role for cells known as fibroblasts. The work, reported in APL Bioengineering, is the first ...
- What to know about types of wound healingon January 18, 2021 at 7:00 pm
There are three main categories of wound healing, depending on treatment and wound type: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Learn more about these types here.
- Adhesive Bandages Market: Ability to Facilitate Smooth and Quick Wound Healing to Boost Demand in the Marketon January 11, 2021 at 3:46 am
Transparency Market Research (TMR) has published a new report titled ‘Adhesive Bandages Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2018–2026.’ According to the ...
- Silk derived formulations for accelerated wound healing in diabetic miceon January 8, 2021 at 4:43 am
After successful induction of diabetes in mice, excision wounds were created via biopsy puncture (6 mm). Wound healing effect of silk sericin (5%) and silk fibroin (5%) individually and in combination ...
via Bing News