Rejuvenation of aged rat skin with pulsed electric fields

Abstract

The demand for skin rejuvenation procedures has progressively increased in the past decade. Additionally, clinical trials have shown that current therapies might cause downtime and side effects in patients including prolonged erythema, scarring, and dyspigmentation. The goal of this study was to explore the effect of partial irreversible electroporation (pIRE) with pulsed electric fields in aged skin rejuvenation as a novel, non-invasive skin resurfacing technique. In this study, we used an experimental model of aged rats. We showed that treatment with pIRE promoted keratinocyte proliferation and blood flow in aged rat skin. We also found significant evidence indicating that pIRE reformed the dermal extracellular matrix (ECM). Both the collagen protein and fibre density in aged skin increased after pIRE administration. Furthermore, using an image-processing algorithm, we found that the collagen fibre orientation in the histological sections did not change, indicating a lack of scar formation in the treated areas. The results showed that pIRE approach could effectively stimulate keratinocyte proliferation, ECM synthesis, and angiogenesis in an aged rat model. KEYWORDSaged skin, electroporation, partial irreversible electroporation, pulsed electric field, skin rejuvenation

Differential Cell Death and Regrowth of Dermal Fibroblasts and Keratinocytes After Application of Pulsed Electric Fields

“…Further exploration of the application of PEF to different in vitro models would enable us to better understand the underlying mechanisms of previously reported improved in vivo wound healing after PEF in skin and other tissues. 16,38…”

Non-invasive physical therapy as salvage measure for ischemic skin flap: A literature review

“…One study investigated the ability of a pulsed EF to promote the repair of skin in aged rats and showed that the EF at the tissue level increased the synthesis of proteins as well as the permeability of the skin for small deoxyribonucleic acid and ribonucleic acid, thereby facilitating the regeneration of the skin[ 26 ]. In another experiment, external electrical stimulation could cause a stress response in organisms to enhance the expression of stress-related protein-heat shock protein (HSP) 70, which inhibits the apoptotic process in ischemic flaps[ 27 , 28 ].…”