"The paint-on liquid bandage we ended up using was somewhat of a surprise, because it is based on an FDA-approved consumer product available in any local pharmacy," commented Li. The search eventually led the team in an unexpected direction.
Does new skin liquid bandage help healing skin#
This method avoids capturing the troubling fluorescence background altogether, catching instead only the phosphorescence data required.įinding a suitable bandage formulation posed some different hurdles, and developing one that was both compatible with the sensor molecule and able to conform to the skin took some time. Thanks to the long-lived phosphorescence, a delayed detection scheme could be employed in which the camera shutter opens only after the auto-fluorescence has decayed. This proved to deliver a uniquely long phosphorescence lifetime, allowing the team to tackle one of the technique's most significant inherent challenges: the skin's auto-fluorescence, and its detrimental effect on the signals of interest. The eventual choice was a sensor molecule of metalloporphyrin design, conjugated with dendrimeric surface groups to increase its oxygen-sensing dynamic range. Indeed, the two aspects became complementary. Our system achieves a higher sensitivity by using a brighter sensor molecule and a more selective detection scheme."ĭevelopment of the bandage required careful attention to both the chemical composition of the material and the optics performance of the sensor molecules within it. "Similar planar sensor formulations have been described in the past that can be applied to the surface of a subject however, their efficiency is low. "The optical principle behind the design is oxygen-dependent phosphorescence quenching, a well-established technique that has been used extensively in the study of oxygenation in biological systems," commented the Wellman Center's Zongxi Li.
The technology was among those recognized recently at the SPIE Photonics West Translational Research Symposium as having potential for significant clinical impact. Applied in liquid form, it dries into a thin-film dressing that can yield phosphorescent data about oxygenation with minimal disruption to the patient.
A more effective and user-friendly method would be far preferable - especially if it could supply quantitative data about oxygenation, a valuable indicator of tissue health and the beginnings of any necrosis that may be setting in.Ī team including researchers from the Wellman Center for Photomedicine and Harvard Medical School has developed an elegant solution: a paint-on bandage material, containing both an oxygen-sensing phosphor and a reference dye. Methods to monitor the oxygen levels in such ulcers have tended to be unsubtle, often involving the use of an invasive probe to yield polarographic information. Poor oxygenation is also a direct factor in chronic ischemic wounds, such as diabetic foot ulcers, which affect large numbers of people and cause significant financial drain on healthcare resources. Oxygen is a critical resource in wound healing, and knowledge of how damaged tissues are taking up and consuming it can provide valuable assistance in the management of skin grafts, burns, and other skin conditions. Under the skin: oxygen comsumption suffers
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