The difference in the natural electrical charge between the inside and outside of everyone's skin may play a significant role in wound healing, say UC Davis researchers. Since older people and individuals with diabetes often experience slow wound healing, understanding electricity's role in the process may reveal new treatment options. In collaborative work, cell biology professor Richard Nuccitelli and Rivkah Isseroff, professor of dermatology at the UC Davis medical school, studied how electrical fields direct the migration of "rebuilder" cells in human and animal wounds. In one lab study of human skin cells, they showed that not only is the rate at which these "rebuilder" cells congregate determined by electrical charge, but so is the particular "highway" on which the cells travel. This work is published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. In a separate study published recently in the Journal of Cell Science, they show that the human "rebuilder" cells, or keratinocytes, migrate fastest under the same electric field strengths that occur naturally in other mammal wounds. This finding lends credence to the theory that electrical current is an important stimulus of wound healing in all mammals.