Bioengineered skin holds great promise for people such as burn victims, but so far this material has only been produced in flat sheets. I devised a way to make it grow in shape, and I was able to slip it onto my body like a piece of clothing.
Flat sheets of bioengineered skin may work fine for implantation on relatively smooth and featureless body parts, but they do not work well for more complex areas like the hands. In such cases, it is usually necessary to sew multiple sheets together to accommodate all the nooks and crannies. This is a tedious and time consuming process.
Led by Ast. A team from Columbia University, Professor Hasan Erbil Abaci, set out to develop a more comfortable alternative.
The system they created begins with a 3D scan performed on the part of the body that needs an implant. Use that scan to 3D print a hollow, transparent, full-scale model of the part.
The outside of the model is then seeded with dermal fibroblasts (which generate the skin’s connective tissue), collagen (which provides the skin with its structure), and keratinocytes (which make up the outer layer of the skin).of inside The model is perfused with growth medium that nourishes the cells outside the model.
Once those cells have grown into real skin, the skin is removed from the model all in one 3D piece, pulled over the real body part it was created on, and sutured in place. It takes about 3 weeks to grow the skin this way. This is about the same time it takes to grow a conventional flat sheet.
In laboratory tests conducted so far, 3D grafts made of human skin cells have been successfully applied to mouse hind limbs. The surgery itself took only about 10 minutes, and the graft was fully incorporated into the surrounding mouse skin in four weeks. Furthermore, monolithic grafts were found to be mechanically stronger than those made by sewing multiple sheets together.
Needless to say, more research needs to be done before human trials can be conducted. is expected. This technology may even offer a better alternative to face transplants, which currently utilize facial tissue harvested from cadavers.
“A three-dimensional skin structure that can be implanted as a ‘biological garment’ has many advantages,” said Abaci. “They will dramatically minimize the need for suturing, reduce operative time, and improve aesthetic results.”
The study is described in a paper recently published in the journal. scientific progress.
Source: Columbia University Irving Medical Center via EurekAlert
