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
The "activate imune cells" may be new - a deeper understanding of the process, but it has been known for decades that small electic currents can aid /speed healing. Not much used as not very convenient or easy to control.
More news about this. Electric Fields Weaker in Slow-Healing Diabetic Wounds New research from an international group led by Min Zhao, professor of ophthalmology and of dermatology at the University of California, Davis, shows that, in animal models of diabetes, slow healing is associated with weaker electrical currents in wounds. The results could ultimately open up new approaches for managing diabetic patients. Electric fields are associated with living tissue. Previous work by Zhao and Brian Reid, project scientist at the UC Davis Department of Dermatology, showed that electric fields are associated with healing damage to the cornea, the transparent outer layer of the eye. In the new work, published June 10 in the journal Scientific Reports, Zhao, Reid and colleagues used a highly sensitive probe to measure electrical fields in the corneas of isolated eyes from three different lab mouse models with different types of diabetes: genetic, drug-induced and in mice fed a high-fat diet. The researchers found that these electric currents were much weaker in eyes from all three strains of diabetic mice than in healthy mice. Delayed wound healing was correlated with weaker electric currents. https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/electric-fields-weaker-slow-healing-diabetic-wounds
My sister-in-law who had MS used to get electric treatments every three months, going back over 20 years. I have no idea whether they actually helped, but she felt better.
