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Biomedical applications of electrical stimulation

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Abstract

This review provides a comprehensive overview on the biomedical applications of electrical stimulation (EStim). EStim has a wide range of direct effects on both biomolecules and cells. These effects have been exploited to facilitate proliferation and functional development of engineered tissue constructs for regenerative medicine applications. They have also been tested or used in clinics for pain mitigation, muscle rehabilitation, the treatment of motor/consciousness disorders, wound healing, and drug delivery. However, the research on fundamental mechanism of cellular response to EStim has fell behind its applications, which has hindered the full exploitation of the clinical potential of EStim. Moreover, despite the positive outcome from the in vitro and animal studies testing the efficacy of EStim, existing clinical trials failed to establish strong, conclusive supports for the therapeutic efficacy of EStim for most of the clinical applications mentioned above. Two potential directions of future research to improve the clinical utility of EStim are presented, including the optimization and standardization of the stimulation protocol and the development of more tissue-matching devices.

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Acknowledgements

S. Zhao thanks the Research Start-Up Funds from the University of Nebraska Medical Center for support of this work. The work in M. Zhao lab was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Eye Institute Grant EY019101, U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Multidisciplinary University Research Initiatives (MURI) Grant FA9550-16-1-0052, and Karen Burns Cornea Research fund. National Institute on Aging grant R21AG060335, NEI core grant P-30 EY012576, and unrestricted grant from Research to Prevent Blindness, Inc.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mary and Dick Holland Regenerative Medicine Program, University of Nebraska Medical Center, 985965 Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA

    Siwei Zhao

  2. Department of Surgery, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Nebraska Medical Center 985965, Omaha, NE, 68198, USA

    Siwei Zhao

  3. Department of Dermatology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    Abijeet Singh Mehta & Min Zhao

  4. Department of Ophthalmology & Vision Science, Institute for Regenerative Cures, Center for Neuroscience, University of California at Davis, School of Medicine, Suite 1630, Room 1617, 2921 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento, CA, 95817, USA

    Abijeet Singh Mehta & Min Zhao

Authors
  1. Siwei Zhao
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  2. Abijeet Singh Mehta
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  3. Min Zhao
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Contributions

SZ and MZ conceived the idea for the article. All authors performed the literature search. All authors drafted and critically revised the work. All authors have read and approved the submitted version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Siwei Zhao.

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Conflict of interest

Min Zhao is a board director (with no compensation) of Aaken Insites, Inc. He gave one-time lectures and received honorarium at CooperVision, Inc. and Unilever. He is a named inventor of U.S. patent and patent applications 14/698,747, 62/610,992, and 62/756,342.

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Zhao, S., Mehta, A.S. & Zhao, M. Biomedical applications of electrical stimulation. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 77, 2681–2699 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-019-03446-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00018-019-03446-1

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