Accelerated Wound Healing Device Using Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) Biostimulation to Support Long Term Human Exploration of Space

As NASA gradually finalizes the strategic plans for long-term exploration of outer space including earth low orbit and other planetary system, significant health and safety risks to the astronauts also arises. One of the risks is the physical wounding, burning, and inflammation during in-space/in-flight construction, fabrication, assembly, and testing of the infrastructures designed for the exploration, including the International Space Station. Such circumstance will severely undermine the implementation of NASA-defined plans and greatly overrun specified budget and time frame, if physical damage is not effectively controlled.

Several cases of minor cuts in microgravity have been reported not being able to heal until return to Earth. While the exact cause for the slow healing in space environment is still been theorized, initial studies on cells exposed to micro- and hyper-gravity have suggested that the growth of human cells is heavily regulated by the gravity. As the gravitational force increases or decreases, the cell function responds in a linear fashion. Typically, the faster the cell growth, the quicker the healing process. Thus, development of technologies that can accelerate the wound healing is crucial to NASAys space exploration mission.

The objective of this work is to develop an in-situ/in-flight wound healing device using wavelength-specific light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) biostimulation to accelerate the healing process. Pioneering work conducted by Medical College of Wisconsin shows that biostimulation is able to increase DNA synthesis in fibroblasts and muscles cells, which could contribute to fibroblast proliferation and healing process.