Can Applying an Electric Field to the Skin Cure Fibrosis?

French researchers have shown that applying an electric field to the skin could cure skin fibrosis by reducing overly high collagen levels.

Applying an electric field to the skin could cure skin fibrosis by reducing overly high collagen levels, a new study suggests.

Published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology, the results open new therapeutic perspectives for the topical treatment of skin fibrosis characterized by excessive collagen deposition.

When an electric field is applied around a tumor, it “permeabilizes” the cells locally and temporarily. This permeabilization ensures, for example, the massive entry of anticancer molecules into cells and tissues, which reduces the amount of doses injected into patients and limits side effects: this is the hospital-based approach of electrochemotherapy that has been used to treat skin tumors since the 1980s.

Interestingly, physicians using this method, and patients themselves, have observed an aesthetic and functional healing of the sites treated in this way. However, the mechanisms behind this observation had never been elucidated.

A research team, involving researchers from the CNRS, the Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier and Toulouse INP, used a highly sophisticated synthetic skin model. This artificial skin model has the advantage of being rich in extracellular matrix, comparable to human skin in terms of composition and organization. This matrix is mainly composed of collagen. Collagen, like the whole extracellular matrix, is finely regulated, in particular by its degradation by specialized enzymes which prevent it from being in excess. If this balance is disturbed, the matrix reaches a pathological or disease state, as is the case with fibrotic or hypertrophic scars, characterized by excessive collagen deposition.

Using this artificial skin model, scientists have shown that applying an electric field to the skin affects many genes that influence collagen production and maturation. As soon as four hours after applying the electric field, less collagen is produced. This lasts for several days. In addition, enzymes that degrade collagen have increased activity for at least 48 hours.

The application of an electric field to the skin therefore presents a great potential for future therapeutic use in the treatment of skin fibrosis, the researchers conclude.