Acceleration of cutaneous healing by electrical stimulation: Degenerate electrical waveform down-regulates inflammation, up-regulates angiogenesis and advances remodeling in temporal punch biopsies in a human volunteer study

We previously demonstrated the beneficial effect of a novel electrical stimulation (ES) waveform, degenerate wave (DW) on skin fibroblasts, and now hypothesize that DW can enhance cutaneous wound healing in vivo. Therefore, a punch biopsy was taken from the upper arm of 20 volunteers on day 0 and repeated on day 14 (NSD14). A contralateral upper arm biopsy was taken on day 0 and treated with DW for 14 days prior to a repeat biopsy on day 14 (ESD14). A near‐completed inflammatory stage of wound healing in ESD14, compared to NSD14 was demonstrated by up‐regulation of interleukin‐10 and vasoactive intestinal peptide using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction and down‐regulation of CD3 by immunohistochemistry (IHC) (p