Biomaterials for Skin Substitutes

Abstract

Patients with extensive burns rely on the use of tissue engineered skin due to a lack of sufficient donor tissue, but it is a challenge to identify reliable and economical scaffold materials and donor cell sources for the generation of a functional skin substitute. The current review attempts to evaluate the performance of the wide range of biomaterials available for generating skin substitutes, including both natural biopolymers and synthetic polymers, in terms of tissue response and potential for use in the operating room. Natural biopolymers display an improved cell response, while synthetic polymers provide better control over chemical composition and mechanical properties. It is suggested that not one material meets all the requirements for a skin substitute. Rather, a composite scaffold fabricated from both natural and synthetic biomaterials may allow for the generation of skin substitutes that meet all clinical requirements including a tailored wound size and type, the degree of burn, the patient age, and the available preparation technique. This review aims to be a valuable directory for researchers in the field to find the optimal material or combination of materials based on their specific application.

Novel Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Chitosan/Modified Graphene Oxide Biocomposite for Wound Dressing Application

“…healing reactions and internal tissue regeneration of the skin are inadequate. [1] Therefore, wound dressings come into being. The ideal wound dressing should possess suitable mechanical property, sufficient water vapor transmission rate (WVTR), exudate absorption capacity, good biocompatibility, excellent antimicrobial activity, and so on.…”

“…Some injuries such as small cuts can heal naturally within a few days. In the case of acute and large area wounds and burns, or in the elderly and diabetics, normal wound healing reactions and internal tissue regeneration of the skin are inadequate 1. Therefore, wound dressings come into being.…”

Construction of a dermis–fat composite in vivo: Optimizing heterogeneous acellular dermal matrix with in vitro pretreatment

“…In recent years, basic research and clinical application of skin tissue engineering have made great progress (Vig et al, ); (Sheikholeslam, Wright, Jeschke, & Amini‐Nik, ), but the tissue engineering research of skin flap, another important technical tool of reparative and reconstructive surgery, has not progressed much (Camuzard et al, ). Skin flaps harbor more tissue types than skin grafts since they have their own blood supply and are therefore more suitable for the repair of deep wounds and chronic wounds with poor local nutrition as well as organ reconstruction (Telfer, Tong, & Moy, ).…”

Progress in developing decellularized bioscaffolds for enhancing skin construction

“…112 Adherence to the wound surface must be uniform to prevent the formation of fluid-filled pockets between the wound and skin substitute and thus block bacterial cell proliferation. Researchers in this field are aiming to obtain optimal skin substitutes for patients with skin wounds.…”