ACCELERATED HEALING OF SKIN ULCERS BY ELECTRICAL STIMULATION AND THE INTRACELLULAR PHYSIOLOGICAL MECHANISMS INVOLVED
- 1 January 1989
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Acupuncture & Electro-Therapeutics Research
- Vol. 14 (1) , 43-60
- https://doi.org/10.3727/036012989816358579
Abstract
Evidence is reviewed (8 studies involving 215 clinical patients with ischemic skin ulcers and 7 animal tissue or tissue culture studies) that electrical stimulation of fibroblast cells accelerates the intracellular biosynthesis necessary to form new granulation tissue in a healing wound, and that both a direct local tissue effect and a circulatory improvement occur. A model is presented in which transmembrane currents open voltage-controlled calcium channels in fibroblast cells, causing ATP resynthesis, activation of protein kinase mechanisms to synthesize new cellular protein, and the DNA replication necessary for mitotic cell division. Stimulation efficacy appears to be determined by a number of basic electrical parameters, and judicious waveform control is desirable.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: