A new research report opens up the possibility that small electrical currents might activate certain immune cells to jumpstart or speed wound healing. This discovery, made by a team of scientists from the United Kingdom, may be of particular interest to those with illnesses that may cause wounds to heal slowly or not at all, such as diabetes.
To make their discovery, scientists exposed macrophages, originating from human blood, to electrical fields of strength similar to that generated in injured skin. When the current was applied, the scientists found that the macrophages moved in a directed manner and from these studies would be predicted to move to the edge of damaged skin to facilitate healing. Not only did the electrical fields coax macrophages into moving directionally, they also significantly enhanced the ability of macrophages to engulf and digest extracellular particles, called "phagocytosis." Phagocytosis is an important process in wound healing whereby macrophages clean the wound site, limit infection and allow the repair process to proceed.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/foas-fte060216.php
Paper: http://www.jleukbio.org/content/early/2016/01/12/jlb.3A0815-390R.abstract
To make their discovery, scientists exposed macrophages, originating from human blood, to electrical fields of strength similar to that generated in injured skin. When the current was applied, the scientists found that the macrophages moved in a directed manner and from these studies would be predicted to move to the edge of damaged skin to facilitate healing. Not only did the electrical fields coax macrophages into moving directionally, they also significantly enhanced the ability of macrophages to engulf and digest extracellular particles, called "phagocytosis." Phagocytosis is an important process in wound healing whereby macrophages clean the wound site, limit infection and allow the repair process to proceed.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-06/foas-fte060216.php
Paper: http://www.jleukbio.org/content/early/2016/01/12/jlb.3A0815-390R.abstract