Abstract
BackgroundElectrostimulation (ES) therapy for wound healing is limited in clinical use due to barriers such as cumbersome equipment and intermittent delivery of therapy.MethodsWe adapted a human skin xenograft model that can be used to directly examine the nanogenerator-driven ES (NG-ES) effects on human skin in vivo—an essential translational step toward clinical application of the NG-ES technique for wound healing.ResultsWe show that NG-ES leads to rapid wound closure with complete restoration of normal skin architecture within 7 days compared to more than 30 days in the literature. NG-ES accelerates the inflammatory phase of wound healing with more rapid resolution of neutrophils and macrophages and enhances wound bed perfusion with more robust neovascularization.ConclusionOur results support the translational evaluation and optimization of the NG-ES technology to deliver convenient, efficient wound healing therapy for use in human wounds.Graphic abstract
Highlights
Effective, safe, painless and easy-to-use approaches to wound care are highly desired
The human skin xenograft model offers a powerful and controllable platform to study cutaneous wound healing in vivo prior to clinical studies in human patients. With this in vivo human wound healing model and a newly designed integrated nanogeneratordriven ES (NG-ES) bandage, we studied the impact of NG-ES on the healing processes of re-epithelialization, inflammatory response, and neovascularization at the tissue level
The overall area of the human skin xenograft was reduced to about 50% of its original size owing to the tension of the surrounding mouse skin and panniculus carnosus, illustrating the strong contractile forces in murine wound closure that is distinct from human wound healing
Summary
Safe, painless and easy-to-use approaches to wound care are highly desired. Despite a robust wound healing product market in excess of $15 billion annually, some currently available therapies have failed to improve outcomes due to a critical lack of preclinical models to inform development of clinically meaningful technologies [1]. When a wound first occurs, disruption of the epithelial layer leads to the generation of endogenous electric fields. These electric fields are thought to function as cues to direct the migration of epithelial cells for efficient wound healing, the mechanisms by which electric fields affect healing are poorly understood [6]. Electric fields present an opportunity for a robust wound healing strategy in which the exogenous electric current is harnessed and utilized to decrease prolonged inflammation while improving cellular migration and proliferation [7]. Electrostimulation (ES) therapy for wound healing is limited in clinical use due to barriers such as cumbersome equipment and intermittent delivery of therapy
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