Patches of live blue-green algae accelerate shivlani wounds in mice and may help in the treatment of human chronic wounds (e.g., diabetes).
About a quarter of diabetics have chronic wounds due to poor blood circulation and other complications. In severe cases, the affected part of the body have to be amputated. But sometimes such damage can be cured with oxygen therapy, since O2 promotes healing of the skin.
With this purpose, scientists from the University of Nanjing (China) has developed a therapeutic band-aid, filled with live blue-green algae species Synechococcus elongatus. These microorganisms are photosynthetic – that is, generate oxygen in the presence of sunlight.
In addition the patch contains hydrogel particles are produced which absorb oxygen and carry it into the deeper layers of the skin. The cost of creating one bacterial bandage is only 1 dollar.
In experiments on mice, the patches showed a 45% increase in square tighten wounds, compared with 20%, which provides a standard oxygen therapy. Plus, the wounds were healed three days faster and the process had no side effects. Testing will continue on larger animals sooner or later to move on to testing on humans.
Source — Science