The application of new biosynthetic artificial skin for long-term temporary wound coverage

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Skin acts as a barrier to keep antigens out of the immune system, and to keep bodily fluids in. Open wounds where the epidermal and dermal layers are absent are prone to infection and need to have the skin repaired immediately to restore homeostasis. The most ideal way to do this is for an autologous skin graft because immune rejection would not be a factor. However this is not always ideal if the wound is large. The authors of the paper investigate a new method of healing skin wounds with engineered artificial skin that will either 1) cover the wound long enough for the wound to heal naturally or 2) cover the wound long enough until an autologous skin culture can be grown to an amount that will suffice in a permanent skin graft.

The artificial skin consists of a thin layer of silicone fused with acellular porcine dermis (APD), and therefore sufficiently named silicone acellular porcine dermis (SAPD).
A 4cm x 5cm skin wound was delivered onto each back of 36 rats; half of them received SAPD treatment over the entire wound and the other half received Biobrane (a manufactured biosynthetic skin substitute that also contains silicone fused to dermal porcine substance).

The wounds were analyzed weekly over a 6-week period using pathological tests. The Biobrane group exhibited wound contraction and digestion of the dermal layer after the 3rd week of grafting. Before the dermal layer was digested, its porcine dermis component faced immunorejection and caused wound inflammation. On the contrary the SAPD group exhibited no wound contraction and after the 6th week, SAPD maintained its well-organized porcine dermis, thereby creating a dermal template that allowed the containing procine collagen to incorporate into the recipient’s wound. No immunorejection was present with minimal inflammation.

Although SAPD proves to be the better artificial skin graft in the observations, one of the major drawbacks is its time dependency. After the 6th week of grafting, the silicone layer separates from the APD, causing dermal layer exposure and infection. As long as the wound can heal or a skin culture can be grown within 6 weeks, SAPD is a sufficient skin graft.

This article was my pick of the liter because its subject matter was somewhat relevant to my project of tissue-engineered skin. The paper provided little insight on methods since our materials vary from those found in the paper, but it was helpful to learn that the dermal layer was the important factor in a successful skin graft – the epidermal layer (in this case silicone) was to provide protection and was not crucial in the material-recipient incorporation. Also it was interesting to know that there is still much headway that can be made with artificial skin despite it being the first tissue organ ever to be engineered.