Employment of current results of tissue engineering in the development of skin substitutes

Summary

Substitution of skin, particularly in extensive burns, is one of the key points for patients’ mortality reduction. In addition to the use of allogeneic and autologous skin substitutes, new developments in tissue engineering would enable the use biosynthetic and combined skin substitutes, which could mimic the structure and functions of normal skin. Several such types of substitutes like cultured allogeneic and autologous keratinocytes, allogeneic/autologous composites, acellular matrices, matrices based on biological substances such as collagen/hyaluronic acid, and matrices seeded by different cell types (keratinocytes, dermal fibroblasts, stem cells) already exist. Recent development in skin substitutes research aims gradually to establish a fully functional skin substitute which could mimic skin not only by its structure, but which could be capable to assure also its revascularization, reinnervations, and replacement of skin appendages (hair follicles, sebaceous glands etc.) as well. Creation of such a skin substitute will require collaboration of a wide range of research specialists including molecular biology, material sciences, genetic and tissue engineering, computer sciences, and, of course, clinical specialists in the field of plastic surgery and burn medicine. Recent advances in this field are promising and give hope that in the near future such a fully functional skin substitute would become a reality. This article aims to give information on the available skin substitutes at the present time.

Key words:
tissue engineering, allografts, autografts, amnion, somatic cells, stem cells, biomaterials, skin substitutes.