Scientists find a new marvel method for faster healing of wounds

It is a general practice to treat wounds with antibacterials to pace up the process of healing. But, can a jet of air without any drug or chemical heal your wounds faster?

The answer to this question is yes. A recent study published in the journal Scientific Reports has shown that wounds heal faster when treated with a jet of charged air. This new technique heals wounds faster without using any drugs. The jet of charged air used for wound healing is called Non Thermal Plasma or NTP.

NTP is generated by flowing gas in a high-strength electric field atmospheric pressure and near ambient temperature. It is composed of charged particles such as electrons, ions, reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, and ultraviolet radiation. In one-minute time, NTP produces approximately 640 trillion charged particles per square centimeters of the wound area.

To test the effect of NTP on wound healing, scientists used rats as animal models. One day before wounding, the animals were given anesthesia. The hairs on their backs were shaved. Depilatory cream applied. An 8 millimeter wide wound on their backs was made using a punching machine.

The above picture depicts the procedure of NTP treatment in a rat model.

After making the wound, NTP was sprayed for just 2 minutes on the wound. To enhance the effect, the air nozzle was kept 1 cm away from the wound. The rats were given painkillers to help them cope with the pain arising from spraying NTP on the exposed wound. Then the wounds were covered with a gauze dressing and self-adhesive elastic bandage. After the first NTP treatment, the rats were treated with NTP again on the second and third day of wounding. The size of the wound was measured every three days for two weeks.

What the scientists found was astonishing. Repeated 2 minutes air plasma treatment promoted healing of skin wounds in rats. This happened because NTP improved the pace of wound closure. 

 As seen in the picture above, NTP treatment (figure below) heals the skin wound faster in a rat model.

NTP is able to heal wounds faster because it destroys the bacteria present on the site of the wound. It triggers bacterial cell death and destroys their cell membranes. “The bactericidal effects of NTP on bacteria can be explained by the deleterious impact of ionized particles on bacterial membranes, while the probable mechanisms could include membrane damage by highly reactive gas radicals”, say scientists Kubinova, Zaviskova, Uherkova, Zablotskii, Churpita, Lunov, and Dejneka. The study was done at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and Charles University at Prague in Czech Republic.

In addition to ionized particles that kill bacteria, NTP also contains reactive oxygen species, which disinfects the wound, aiding faster repair of wounded tissue. NTP has already been approved as safe in several clinical trials. However the scientists did not know the molecular mechanism by which NTP heals the wounds faster.

In this study, scientists found that wounds treated with NTP contracted faster than untreated wounds.They studied the wounds by microscopy and found the mechanism. After NTP treatment, more skin formed and more collagen deposited on wounds. NTP treatment did not affect the wound healing in early days, that is, 3 days post wound formation. But remarkable effects were seen 7 days after wounding. NTP significantly increased wound closure andhealing. There were no side effects of NTP treatment during the complete experiment on rats.

The study showed safe and effective use of NTP for acute wound healing, highlighting the favorability of plasma applications for wound therapy. Treating wounds with NTP for 2 minutes killed the bacteria on wounds without damaging any living tissue.

“Our data support a therapeutic use of air NTP for wound healing which is essential for further development of NTP in clinics. In future, this method could be used for sterilization and healing of contaminated wounds, example in diabetic or venous ulcers”, says Dr. Sarka Kubinova at the Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Reference: Scientific Reports 7: 45183. 

By Bhavya Khullar