Wounds - Healed with Light
Wounds - Healed with Light
  • Reporter Lee Jun-yong
  • 승인 2017.11.01 14:27
  • 댓글 0
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▲ Schematic illustration for photochemical tissue bonding
A joint research team consisting of Han Seul-gi (MSE Ph.D. candidate), and professors Hahn Sei-kwang (MSE), Cha Hyung-joon (CE), and Yun Seok-hyun (Wellman Center for Photomedicine) successfully developed a method to heal wounds using light. The team focused on up conversion nanoparticles, which absorbs near-infrared rays and emits visible rays. Both electromagnetic waves easily penetrate human skin, but cause no harm. The team attached Rose Bengal, a dye that absorbs green light and helps collagens bond, to hyaluronic acid, a compound that easily goes through human skin, and mixed the complex with up conversion nanoparticles. Their paper was published in ACS Nano, a prestigious journal in Nano science. After applying the complex on animal skin, the team exposed the skin under near-infrared rays, and observed that the up conversion nanoparticles emit green light, which activates the Rose Bengals, leading collagens to bond with each other, and successfully healing the wound. Conventionally, wounds are closed with threads or stapling. However, this new method enables healing to start from deeper parts of the body by collagens bonding, thus shortening the healing process, leading to lower risk of contamination.