scholarly journals Harnessing wound healing and regeneration for tissue engineering

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 413-417 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.D. Metcalfe ◽  
M.W.J. Ferguson

Biomedical science has made major advances in understanding how cells grow into functioning tissue and the signalling mechanisms used to achieve this are slowly being dissected. Tissue engineering is the application of that knowledge to the building or repairing of organs, including skin, the largest organ in the body. Generally, engineered tissue is a combination of living cells and a supporting matrix. Besides serving as burn coverings, engineered skin substitutes can help patients with diabetic foot ulcers. Today, most of these ulcers are treated with an approach that includes antibiotics, glucose control, special shoes and frequent cleaning and bandaging. The results of such treatments are often disappointing and ineffectual, and scarring remains a major problem, mechanically, cosmetically and psychologically. Within our group we are attempting to address this by investigating novel approaches to skin tissue engineering. We are identifying novel therapeutic manipulations to improve the degree of integration between a tissue engineered dermal construct and the host by both molecular manipulation of growth factors but also by understanding and harnessing mechanisms of regenerative biology. For the purpose of this summary, we will concentrate primarily on the latter of these two approaches in that we have identified a novel mouse mutant that completely and perfectly regenerates skin and cartilaginous components following ear injury. This experimental animal will allow us to characterize not only novel genes involved in the regeneration process but also to utilize cells from such animals in artificial skin equivalents to assess their behaviour compared with normal cells. This approach should allow us to create a tissue-engineered substitute, which more closely resembles the normal regional microanatomy and physiology of the skin, allowing better integration to the host with minimal or no scarring.

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-63 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nandana Bhardwaj ◽  
Wan Ting Sow ◽  
Dipali Devi ◽  
Kee Woei Ng ◽  
Biman B. Mandal ◽  
...  

Development of highly vascular dermal tissue-engineered skin substitutes with appropriate mechanical properties and cellular cues is in need for significant advancement in the field of dermal reconstruction.


Biomedicines ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Shima Tavakoli ◽  
Marta A. Kisiel ◽  
Thomas Biedermann ◽  
Agnes S. Klar

The immune system has a crucial role in skin wound healing and the application of specific cell-laden immunomodulating biomaterials emerged as a possible treatment option to drive skin tissue regeneration. Cell-laden tissue-engineered skin substitutes have the ability to activate immune pathways, even in the absence of other immune-stimulating signals. In particular, mesenchymal stem cells with their immunomodulatory properties can create a specific immune microenvironment to reduce inflammation, scarring, and support skin regeneration. This review presents an overview of current wound care techniques including skin tissue engineering and biomaterials as a novel and promising approach. We highlight the plasticity and different roles of immune cells, in particular macrophages during various stages of skin wound healing. These aspects are pivotal to promote the regeneration of nonhealing wounds such as ulcers in diabetic patients. We believe that a better understanding of the intrinsic immunomodulatory features of stem cells in implantable skin substitutes will lead to new translational opportunities. This, in turn, will improve skin tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.


Materials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 89
Author(s):  
Enes Aslan ◽  
Cian Vyas ◽  
Joel Yupanqui Mieles ◽  
Gavin Humphreys ◽  
Carl Diver ◽  
...  

Skin is a hierarchical and multi-cellular organ exposed to the external environment with a key protective and regulatory role. Wounds caused by disease and trauma can lead to a loss of function, which can be debilitating and even cause death. Accelerating the natural skin healing process and minimizing the risk of infection is a clinical challenge. Electrospinning is a key technology in the development of wound dressings and skin substitutes as it enables extracellular matrix-mimicking fibrous structures and delivery of bioactive materials. Honey is a promising biomaterial for use in skin tissue engineering applications and has antimicrobial properties and potential tissue regenerative properties. This preliminary study investigates a solution electrospun composite nanofibrous mesh based on polycaprolactone and a medical grade honey, SurgihoneyRO. The processing conditions were optimized and assessed by scanning electron microscopy to fabricate meshes with uniform fiber diameters and minimal presence of beads. The chemistry of the composite meshes was examined using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray photon spectroscopy showing incorporation of honey into the polymer matrix. Meshes incorporating honey had lower mechanical properties due to lower polymer content but were more hydrophilic, resulting in an increase in swelling and an accelerated degradation profile. The biocompatibility of the meshes was assessed using human dermal fibroblasts and adipose-derived stem cells, which showed comparable or higher cell metabolic activity and viability for SurgihoneyRO-containing meshes compared to polycaprolactone only meshes. The meshes showed no antibacterial properties in a disk diffusion test due to a lack of hydrogen peroxide production and release. The developed polycaprolactone-honey nanofibrous meshes have potential for use in skin applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeganeh Dorri Nokoorani ◽  
Amir Shamloo ◽  
Maedeh Bahadoran ◽  
Hamideh Moravvej

AbstractUsing the skin tissue engineering approach is a way to help the body to recover its lost skin in cases that the spontaneous healing process is either impossible or inadequate, such as severe wounds or burns. In the present study, chitosan/gelatin-based scaffolds containing 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1% allantoin were created to improve the wounds’ healing process. EDC and NHS were used to cross-link the samples, which were further freeze-dried. Different in-vitro methods were utilized to characterize the specimens, including SEM imaging, PBS absorption and degradation tests, mechanical experiments, allantoin release profile assessment, antibacterial assay, and cell viability and adhesion tests. The results indicated that the scaffolds’ average pore sizes were approximately in the range of 390–440 µm, and their PBS uptake amounts were about 1000% to 1250% after being soaked in PBS for 24 h. Around 70% of the specimens were degraded in 6 days, but they were not fully degraded after 21 days. Besides, the samples showed antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. coli bacteria. In general, the MTT cell viability test indicated that the cells’ density increased slightly or remained the same during the experiment. SEM images of cells seeded on the scaffolds indicated appropriate properties of the scaffolds for cell adhesion.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alvin Wen Choong Chua ◽  
Yik Cheong Khoo ◽  
Bien Keem Tan ◽  
Kok Chai Tan ◽  
Chee Liam Foo ◽  
...  

Abstract Current advances in basic stem cell research and tissue engineering augur well for the development of improved cultured skin tissue substitutes: a class of products that is still fraught with limitations for clinical use. Although the ability to grow autologous keratinocytes in-vitro from a small skin biopsy into sheets of stratified epithelium (within 3 to 4 weeks) helped alleviate the problem of insufficient donor site for extensive burn, many burn units still have to grapple with insufficient skin allografts which are used as intermediate wound coverage after burn excision. Alternatives offered by tissue-engineered skin dermal replacements to meet emergency demand have been used fairly successfully. Despite the availability of these commercial products, they all suffer from the same problems of extremely high cost, sub-normal skin microstructure and inconsistent engraftment, especially in full thickness burns. Clinical practice for severe burn treatment has since evolved to incorporate these tissue-engineered skin substitutes, usually as an adjunct to speed up epithelization for wound closure and/or to improve quality of life by improving the functional and cosmetic results long-term. This review seeks to bring the reader through the beginnings of skin tissue engineering, the utilization of some of the key products developed for the treatment of severe burns and the hope of harnessing stem cells to improve on current practice.


Author(s):  
Varuna Naga Venkata Arjun Uppuluri ◽  
Shanmugarajan Thukani Sathanantham ◽  
Sai Krishna Bhimavarapu ◽  
Lokesh Elumalai

Tissue engineering is a novel regenerative approach in the medicinal field that promises the regeneration of damaged tissues. Moreover, tissue engineering involves synthetic and natural biomaterials that facilitate tissue or organ growth outside the body. Not surprisingly, the demand for polymer-based therapeutical approaches in skin tissue defects has increased at an effective rate, despite the pressing clinical need. Among the 3D scaffolds for tissue engineering and regeneration approaches, hydrogel scaffolds have shown significant importance for their use as 3D cross-linked scaffolds in skin tissue regeneration due to their ideal moisture retention property and porosity biocompatibility, biodegradable, and biomimetic characteristics. In this review, we demonstrated the choice of ideal biomaterials to fabricate the novel hydrogel scaffolds for skin tissue engineering. After a short introduction to the bioactive and drug-loaded polymeric hydrogels, the discussion turns to fabrication and characterisation techniques of the polymeric hydrogel scaffolds. In conclusion, we discuss the excellent wound healing potential of stem cell-loaded hydrogels and Nano-based approaches to designing hydrogel scaffolds for skin tissue engineering.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1033
Author(s):  
Laura Linares-Gonzalez ◽  
Teresa Rodenas-Herranz ◽  
Fernando Campos ◽  
Ricardo Ruiz-Villaverde ◽  
Víctor Carriel

Reconstruction of skin defects is often a challenging effort due to the currently limited reconstructive options. In this sense, tissue engineering has emerged as a possible alternative to replace or repair diseased or damaged tissues from the patient’s own cells. A substantial number of tissue-engineered skin substitutes (TESSs) have been conceived and evaluated in vitro and in vivo showing promising results in the preclinical stage. However, only a few constructs have been used in the clinic. The lack of standardization in evaluation methods employed may in part be responsible for this discrepancy. This review covers the most well-known and up-to-date methods for evaluating the optimization of new TESSs and orientative guidelines for the evaluation of TESSs are proposed.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonios Keirouz ◽  
Giuseppino Fortunato ◽  
Anthony Callanan ◽  
Norbert Radacsi

Scaffolds and implants used for tissue engineering need to be adapted for their mechanical properties with respect to their environment within the human body. Therefore, a novel composite for skin tissue engineering is presented by use of blends of Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) and Poly(glycerol sebacate) (PGS) were fabricated via the needleless electrospinning technique. The formed PGS/PVP blends were morphologically, thermochemically and mechanically characterized. The morphology of the developed fibers related to the concentration of PGS, with high concentrations of PGS merging the fibers together plasticizing the scaffold. The tensile modulus appeared to be affected by the concentration of PGS within the blends, with an apparent decrease in the elastic modulus of the electrospun mats and an exponential increase of the elongation at break. Ultraviolet (UV) crosslinking of PGS/PVP significantly decreased and stabilized the wettability of the formed fiber mats, as indicated by contact angle measurements. In vitro examination showed good viability and proliferation of human dermal fibroblasts over the period of a week. The present findings provide important insights for tuning the elastic properties of electrospun material by incorporating this unique elastomer, as a promising future candidate for skin substitute constructs.


Author(s):  
Vikas V. Gaikwad ◽  
Abasaheb B. Patil ◽  
Madhuri V. Gaikwad

Scaffolds are used for drug delivery in tissue engineering as this system is a highly porous structure to allow tissue growth.  Although several tissues in the body can regenerate, other tissue such as heart muscles and nerves lack regeneration in adults. However, these can be regenerated by supplying the cells generated using tissue engineering from outside. For instance, in many heart diseases, there is need for heart valve transplantation and unfortunately, within 10 years of initial valve replacement, 50–60% of patients will experience prosthesis associated problems requiring reoperation. This could be avoided by transplantation of heart muscle cells that can regenerate. Delivery of these cells to the respective tissues is not an easy task and this could be done with the help of scaffolds. In situ gel forming scaffolds can also be used for the bone and cartilage regeneration. They can be injected anywhere and can take the shape of a tissue defect, avoiding the need for patient specific scaffold prefabrication and they also have other advantages. Scaffolds are prepared by biodegradable material that result in minimal immune and inflammatory response. Some of the very important issues regarding scaffolds as drug delivery systems is reviewed in this article.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Britani N. Blackstone ◽  
Summer C. Gallentine ◽  
Heather M. Powell

Collagen is a key component of the extracellular matrix (ECM) in organs and tissues throughout the body and is used for many tissue engineering applications. Electrospinning of collagen can produce scaffolds in a wide variety of shapes, fiber diameters and porosities to match that of the native ECM. This systematic review aims to pool data from available manuscripts on electrospun collagen and tissue engineering to provide insight into the connection between source material, solvent, crosslinking method and functional outcomes. D-banding was most often observed in electrospun collagen formed using collagen type I isolated from calfskin, often isolated within the laboratory, with short solution solubilization times. All physical and chemical methods of crosslinking utilized imparted resistance to degradation and increased strength. Cytotoxicity was observed at high concentrations of crosslinking agents and when abbreviated rinsing protocols were utilized. Collagen and collagen-based scaffolds were capable of forming engineered tissues in vitro and in vivo with high similarity to the native structures.


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