Making skin more comfortable by preventing scars

Researchers have developed a method to prevent burn scars, which may help individuals feel more comfortable in their own skin, both mentally and physically.

The pIRE technique partially destroys cells in the wound through pulsed electric fields that would have caused the buildup of collagen cells to form a scar. This technique has been tested in rats and found that there is a 57.9 percent reduction in the scar area when compared to an untreated scar.

"People don't die from scars, but they do suffer from them," said Alexander Golberg, MD, of Israel's Tel Aviv University's Porter School of Environmental Studies. "We believe that the technology we developed, called partial irreversible electroporation (pIRE), can be used to prevent debilitating burn scars from forming."

The non-invasive method uses short electrical fields to prevent the formation of hypertrophic scars. This method will combat the lifelong damages that post-burn scarring put on patients.

"Surgical excision, laser therapy, electron-beam irradiation, mechanical compression dressing, silicone sheet application and other techniques have been tested to treat scars over the years, but there have been only modest improvements in the healing outcomes among all these treatments," said Golberg. "Scarring is a very complex process, involving inflammation and metabolism. We have found a way to partially prevent scar formation in animal models. Next we need to raise funding to develop a device for the clinical study on humans."