Skin Rejuvenation with Non-Invasive Pulsed Electric Fields

Abstract

Degenerative skin diseases affect one third of individuals over the age of sixty. Current therapies use various physical and chemical methods to rejuvenate skin; but since the therapies affect many tissue components including cells and extracellular matrix, they may also induce significant side effects, such as scarring. Here we report on a new, non-invasive, non-thermal technique to rejuvenate skin with pulsed electric fields. The fields destroy cells while simultaneously completely preserving the extracellular matrix architecture and releasing multiple growth factors locally that induce new cells and tissue growth. We have identified the specific pulsed electric field parameters in rats that lead to prominent proliferation of the epidermis, formation of microvasculature, and secretion of new collagen at treated areas without scarring. Our results suggest that pulsed electric fields can improve skin function and thus can potentially serve as a novel non-invasive skin therapy for multiple degenerative skin diseases.

Rapid three-dimensional quantification of voxel-wise collagen fiber orientation

“…As a result, pixel-specific fiber orientation information can be provided faster than pixel-wise Fourier analysis with comparable accuracy by an order of magnitude. This technique has been successfully applied for studying interactions between the matrix and human breast cells [33], and mapping scar formation in histological tissue sections [34,35]. Compared to edge detection algorithms that have been developed for rapidly detecting fiber orientation in micrographs, such as algorithms based on Sobel or Canny operators [36][37][38], this technique has improved accuracy.…”

Preventing Scars after Injury with Partial Irreversible Electroporation

“…pIRE effects on tissue are very different from laser-induced tissue damage, because IRE allows for spatial and temporal control of viable cell density without any significant effect on the surrounding ECM, tissue oxygenation and mechanical properties (Rubinsky et al 2007; Golberg et al 2015b). This substantively different approach for scar therapy is expected to overcome the problems that have been associated with other surgical or chemical scar therapies.…”

“…No scar or tumor formation has been observed during the six months of these studies. We have also developed pIRE protocols for rejuvenation of skin (Golberg et al 2015b). In that work we showed that a single application of pIRE to normal skin in rats triggers the secretion of new collagen, the formation of additional capillaries, the proliferation of the epidermis, and increases the total metabolic activity in the treated area (Golberg et al 2015b).…”

“…We have also developed pIRE protocols for rejuvenation of skin (Golberg et al 2015b). In that work we showed that a single application of pIRE to normal skin in rats triggers the secretion of new collagen, the formation of additional capillaries, the proliferation of the epidermis, and increases the total metabolic activity in the treated area (Golberg et al 2015b). In addition, we also have developed methods to control fibroblast cell populations using intermittently delivered pIRE in cell cultures (Golberg et al 2013a), and to disinfect third degree burns with complete IRE of the infecting bacteria (Golberg et al 2014).…”

“…In our previous work, using a Taguchi robust experimental design approach we determined the electric field strength and the number of pulses to be the most important pIRE parameters for skin rejuvenation (Golberg et al 2015b). Accordingly, we limited the number of tested parameters in the present study to 1) electric field strength, 2) number of pulses and 3) frequency of treatment delivery.…”