The effect of induced biphasic pulsed currents on re-epithelialization of a novel wound healing model

The coordinated migration of keratinocytes is crucial to cutaneous wound healing; failure of keratinocytes to migrate into a wound can lead to chronic non-healing wounds. Keratinocyte migration can be influenced by applied electrical fields. Our aim was to investigate whether keratinocyte migration could be accelerated by applying an induced biphasic pulsed electrical field. We developed two in vitro biological systems models for this purpose: a keratinocyte colony-forming model and a reconstituted skin wound healing model with biphasic pulsed currents. Our in vitro skin models were capable of generating trans-epithelial potentials (TEP) similar to in vivo mammalian skin. Histological examination of the wound healing model also indicated that re-epithelialization occurred in a similar manner to that seen in vivo, although no evidence of a reconstitution of a basement membrane was seen during the 14 days in vitro experimental period. We found that growth of keratinocyte colonies and keratinocyte migration in an in vitro wound bed were not significantly affected by induced short duration biphasic pulsed currents at a frequency of 0.5 Hz of 100 and 200 mV/mm.