Journal of Rehabil itation Research & Development Effect of sensory and motor electrical stimulation in vascular endothelial growth factor expression of muscle and skin in full-thickness wound

Abstract—Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is impor-tant in improving wound healing. We evaluated the effect of sen-sory (direct current, 600 microamperes) and motor (monophasic current, pulse duration 300 microseconds, 100 Hz, 2.5–3.0 mA) intensities of cathodal electrical stimulation (ES) current to release VEGF in muscle and skin in the wound site. We ran-domly assigned 48 male Sprague-Dawley rats into one control and two experimental groups (sensory and motor ESs). A full-thickness skin incision was made on each animal’s dorsal region. The experimental groups received ES for 1 h/day every other day. In the control group, no current was applied. VEGF expres-sion was measured in muscle and skin on the third and seventh days after surgical incision. Our outcomes demonstrated that no difference was found in the VEGF levels among groups on the third day. However, on the seventh day, the skin VEGF levels i