Hydrogen generating patch improves skin cell viability, migration activity, and collagen expression

Abstract Molecular hydrogen recently attracted lots of attention in biomedical community because of its abilities to modulate signal transduction, protein phosphorylation, and gene expression that enable its anti-inflammatory, anti-allergy, and anti-apoptotic activities. However, controllable and local delivery of hydrogen molecules to tissues still remains challenging. Here, we propose a new method of delivering molecular hydrogen directly to human skin cells by designing a hydrogen-generating patch that releases hydrogen in surrounding environment as a product of chemical reaction of aluminum and carbon hydroxide in presence of water. We show that in the presence of molecular hydrogen the cells viability, expression of collagen, and migration efficiency of cells increase, thus suggesting that hydrogen can be used to promote better and faster healing of skin issues such as wounds and bruises.