What Happens to Cells When We Stimulate Them with Electricity?
A new conductive, self-healing hydrogel developed at Tel Aviv University could support wound healing through controlled electrical stimulation.
Researchers from Prof. Lihi Adler-Abramovich's group at the Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine, Gray Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, have developed a conductive, self-healing hydrogel designed to support electrically assisted wound healing.
The new material combines self-assembling peptides, conductive MXene nanosheets, and hyaluronic acid in a single hydrogel scaffold. Together, these components provide a fibrous structure that resembles the extracellular matrix, electrical conductivity, and biological activity while maintaining the hydrogel's ability to self-heal.
Why electricity?
The skin naturally generates small electrical potentials. When the skin is injured, changes in these electrical signals help guide processes involved in tissue repair, including cell proliferation and migration. The researchers designed the conductive hydrogel to transmit controlled electrical stimulation that mimics these physiological signals.
In laboratory experiments, electrical stimulation at physiologically relevant voltages significantly increased fibroblast activity. Stimulation at 100–200 mV increased cell viability by approximately 30–40% compared with unstimulated controls, while excessive voltage reduced cell viability.
The researchers also found that electrical stimulation accelerated fibroblast migration across cell-free areas. The strongest effect was observed when electrical stimulation was combined with the hydrogel containing both MXene and hyaluronic acid: after 12 hours, fibroblasts had closed 39.4% of the initial cell-free area, compared with 22.9% on the unstimulated MXene-containing hydrogel without hyaluronic acid.
The findings suggest that combining the hydrogel's conductive and bioactive properties with controlled electrical stimulation could provide a promising platform for future wound-healing applications. The current study was conducted in vitro, and the researchers note that future studies will be needed to evaluate the scaffold in relevant in vivo regeneration models.
The study was led by Offir Loboda and Dr. Dana Cohen-Gerassi, who contributed equally to the work, in collaboration with Prof. Maxim Sokol, Prof. Ehud Gazit, Bar Favelukis, Dr. Or Messer, and Dor Aaron Goldstein, under the supervision of Prof. Lihi Adler-Abramovich.
The study was published in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
Full study > https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adhm.71487
