Grant: Operating Grant

Injury of tissues like skin or bone can be repaired by the cells originally presented in the tissues. Cellular activities and tissue repair are coordinated by many kinds of proteins called cytokines and chemokines produced by the repairing cells. Such proteins are produced by different types of cells during injury or infection to fight invasion and to repair damaged tissues or organs. One of the fundamentally important tasks in tissue regeneration is to understand and, even more importantly, to modulate the activities in the repairing cells in order to favour the regeneration of the damaged tissues. We have previously reported that the production of two types of important biomolecules in wound healing, interleukin-6 and interleukin-8, was dramatically increased through electrical stimulation using our unique electrically conductive material. We also showed that one type of skin cells (fibroblasts) have the possibility to be transformed into a different type of cells called myofibroblasts. Myofibroblasts are important in wound healing by helping the closure of wound. This highlights the possibility of using electrical signals to promote tissue regeneration. The current grant application is to investigate the mechanisms behind the electrically stimulated cell response, and to expand our knowledge on how cells react to conductive polymer-mediated electrical stimulations. The scientific knowledge anticipated from this research is directly applicable to regenerative medicine and therefore beneficiary to the health of Canadians.