611-P: Splenic Stimulation with Focused Ultrasound Aids in Wound Healing

Abstract

Wound care in at risk populations is a growing problem. The cost of care of these non-healing wounds is projected to be in the billions with the number of people affected being above 6.5 million and increasing as the population ages. There is significant mortality related with non-healing wounds with 5-year rates being higher than many cancers such as prostate or breast. Chronic inflammation, a comorbidity of type 2 diabetes, when left unchecked may result in non-healing wounds. This study explores the use of non-invasive focused ultrasound (FUS) targeted to the spleen to aid in healing of full thickness excision skin wounds in Obese Zucker Diabetic (ZDF) or Zucker Diabetic Sprague Dawley (ZDSD) rats. Splenic stimulation with FUS has been shown to decrease TNF-α 60 minutes post stimulation in both whole blood and the spleen of animals injected with LPS. By decreasing systemic proinflammatory cytokines, wounds may progress to better outcomes. In the current study, FUS was targeted to the spleen daily while wounds were healing (16 days). Hyperglycemic (fed glucose >250 mg/dL) ZDF stimulated with FUS were predicted (by linear regression) to heal 5 days faster than shams (17.1 ±0.8 days vs. 22.3±1.6 days respectively). Glucose levels remained similar throughout the study. The same FUS conditions were applied to prediabetic ZDSD (fed glucose < 195 mg/dL). FUS stimulated rats were predicted to heal 2 days faster than shams (20 ±1.2 vs. 22.3±1.1 respectively). Disclosure C.A. Morton: None. V.E. Cotero-Lefevre: None. C. Puleo: Employee; Self; General Electric. J. Ashe: Employee; Self; General Electric.