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

Hiroyuki Kai, Takeshi Yamauchi, Yudai Ogawa, Ayaka Tsubota, Takahiro Magome, Takeo Miyake, Kenshi Yamasaki, Matsuhiko Nishizawa*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

71 Citations (Scopus)

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.

Original languageEnglish
Article number1700465
JournalAdvanced Healthcare Materials
Volume6
Issue number22
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2017 Nov 22
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • electrical stimulation
  • enzymatic biofuel cells
  • wearable devices
  • wound healing

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biomaterials
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Pharmaceutical Science

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