Abstract
Diabetes patients are at risk of having chronic wounds, which would take months to years to resolve naturally. Chronic wounds can be countered using the electrical stimulation technique (EST) by dielectrophoresis (DEP), which is label-free, highly sensitive, and selective for particle trajectory. In this study, we focus on the validation of polystyrene particles of 3.2 and 4.8 μm to predict the behavior of keratinocytes to estimate their crossover frequency (fXO) using the DEP force (FDEP) for particle manipulation. MyDEP is a piece of java-based stand-alone software used to consider the dielectric particle response to AC electric fields and analyzes the electrical properties of biological cells. The prototypic 3.2 and 4.8 μm polystyrene particles have fXO values from MyDEP of 425.02 and 275.37 kHz, respectively. Fibroblast cells were also subjected to numerical analysis because the interaction of keratinocytes and fibroblast cells is essential for wound healing. Consequently, the predicted fXO from the MyDEP plot for keratinocyte and fibroblast cells are 510.53 and 28.10 MHz, respectively. The finite element method (FEM) is utilized to compute the electric field intensity and particle trajectory based on DEP and drag forces. Moreover, the particle trajectories are quantified in a high and low conductive medium. To justify the simulation, further DEP experiments are carried out by applying a non-uniform electric field to a mixture of different sizes of polystyrene particles and keratinocyte cells, and these results are well agreed. The alive keratinocyte cells exhibit NDEP force in a highly conductive medium from 100 kHz to 25 MHz. 2D/3D motion analysis software (DIPP-MotionV) can also perform image analysis of keratinocyte cells and evaluate the average speed, acceleration, and trajectory position. The resultant NDEP force can align the keratinocyte cells in the wound site upon suitable applied frequency. Thus, MyDEP estimates the Clausius–Mossotti factors (CMF), FEM computes the cell trajectory, and the experimental results of prototypic polystyrene particles are well correlated and provide an optimistic response towards keratinocyte cells for rapid wound healing applications.
Highlights
Chronic wounds, which are injuries that have not matured through the normal cure phase, are visible for much longer than a month
Particles experience a positive DEP (PDEP) or negative DEP (NDEP) effect based on the polarity of the real part Re [ fCM], which varies from +1 to −1/2 and −3/4 for the imaginary part Im [ fCM] [13]
The Clausius–Mossotti factors (CMF) is plotted only for the real part because it is the only contribution to DEP
Summary
Chronic wounds, which are injuries that have not matured through the normal cure phase, are visible for much longer than a month. Patients with diabetes are at risk of experiencing chronic wounds. The lifetime risk of diabetes is 45–64 years old. In 2030, developing countries are predicted to have 82 million more people above 65 years old with diabetes compared with 48 million people in developed countries [1]. The availability and quality of wound care are the major problems faced by patients with chronic wounds to recover faster. The human skin consists of successive layers. The keratinocyte is the building block of the skin epidermis and plays a crucial role in the proliferative wound healing process. The inner layer is the dermis, which consists of fibroblasts that are responsible for the synthesis of extracellular matrix (ECM) which supports wound migration [4]. The electrical stimulation technique (EST) addresses wound critical factors for example, reducing bacterial infection, improving capillary density and local perfusion, boosting wound oxygenation, promoting granulation and fibroblast development, and accelerating wound healing [5]
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