The Science and Future Innovations of Bandages
Cooking and adhesive bandages might seem like two unrelated things, but these two have more in common than one suspects. Adhesive bandages were born from the mishaps of cooking. In 1920, a woman named Josephine cut and burned herself numerous times while cooking. She would use a strip of fabric to wind it around her wound and make a knot to secure the fabric. This method was bulky and not necessarily sterile. To aid this, her husband, Earle Disckson, invented ready-to-use-bandages by the use of gauze squares with crinoline fabric on adhesive tapes. This became the very first Band-Aid which was produced by Johnson & Johnson where Dickson worked. Johnson & Johnson later on introduced machine-made Band-Aids which were the first sterilized Band-Aids in the market. Band-Aids became heavily popularized by its use in World War II where millions were shipped overseas (Shah).
The main function of bandages is protecting the wound or scab from bacteria, friction, damage, and dirt. Bandages are able to reduce disturbance for the healing process, as well as expedite the process in general. Structurally, bandages are made out of an adhesive material that borders an absorbent pad targeted to be placed against the wound. Woven fabric, PVS, polyethylene, or latex is normally used as materials for the adhesive sheet, while the absorbent material is normally made out of cotton. Some adhesive pads are also coated by a porous-polymer coating over the pad in aims to avoid adhesion to the wound. In some cases, the absorbent material can absorb antiseptic solution if needed. Most wound treatments like this create a moist local environment on the wound--this in itself maintains cells alive, particularly keratinocytes, which are cells that localize towards the injury for protecting the wounded area.
Though bandages are used at a global scale, a fraction of people have allergic reactions against the materials used in the bandage. This, along with medical innovation, prompted the evolution of how bandages are designed: waterproof bandages, for example, have a stronger adhesive. Transdermal patches have also been designed to be able to administer medication into the body through the skin.
An undergraduate thesis project at Harvard University conducted by Serena Blacklow and her team took the notion of “seamless and scar-free healing process scientists have observed in animal embryos” and applied it to a completely new, innovative design for bandages. Blacklow and her team were inspired by how wounds are closed in human embryos. When embryos are wounded in a laboratory setting, it is healed in a relatively fast manner as “actin quickly draws the edges of the wound together like a purse string.” Using “a gel-like substance from seaweed called alginate,” Blacklow’s team shrank the substance using a temperature-sensitive material at 32oC--this feature allows skin to be pulled together to close up the wound. They were able to incorporate chitosan, a molecule derived from the skeleton of shellfish, and silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial properties. Together, their results presented an embryo-inspired bandage with an exciting turnout: “wounds closed halfway in less than 5 days versus a week or more for untreated wounds” (Frederick).
Innovations on wound healing will continue to progress as new materials, scientific inspiration, and research come into play. This is in line with today’s medical progress into incorporating biotechnology into the realm of medicine, and applying it to real life situations.
References:
Frederick, Eva. “This Embryo-Inspired Bandage Is 17 Times Stickier than a Band-Aid.” Science, 24 July 2019, www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/embryo-inspired-bandage-17-times-stickier-band-aid.
Shah, Jayesh B. “The history of wound care.” The journal of the American College of Certified Wound Specialists vol. 3,3 (2011): 65-6. doi:10.1016/j.jcws.2012.04.002
