Current insights into skin banking: storage, preservation and clinical importance of skin allografts

Abstract

Donor skin and dermal grafts are used in several types of loss of substance for different clinical purposes. As biological physiological medication, donor skin grafts can promote re-epithelization, shorten healing time, alleviate pain and protect dermal and subcutaneous structures such as cartilage, tendons, bones and nerves. Though a great variety of dermal matrices and skin equivalents, both synthetic and semisynthetic, are now available for wound treatment, viable human skin allografts remain an important therapeutic choice for extensive deep burns and hard-to-heal wounds. In such cases, viable skin allografts have significantly better clinical outcomes than unviable human-derived allografts or synthetic medications. The demand for human-derived skin bioproducts continues to be a reason for the existence of skin banks. Skin bank organization is complex and requires continuous updating. Careful donor selection, thorough microbiological and serological donor screening for transmissible diseases and rigorous quality control during tissue preparation are necessary to minimize the risk of transmission of pathogenic agents. Skin banks must also observe standardized reproducible procedures to ensure tissue traceability and biological safety in all phases of processing and to avoid new biological contamination. Constant training and periodic checks are needed to keep skin bank operators attentive and responsible. Finally, skin banks should guarantee collection and storage of highly viable skin. Here, we discuss available tissue storage methods and the different types of skin bioproducts.

Wound healing grafts: Omega‐3 fatty acid lipid content differentiates the lipid profiles of acellular Atlantic cod skin from traditional dermal substitutes

“…Using GC-FID analysis, performed at two different facilities, we demonstrated that considerable PUFA content is retained in fish skin post-processing. ACS was particularly rich in omega-3 fatty acids, predominantly EPA (20:5ω3) and DHA (22:6ω3; has been demonstrated that the age of the donor animal does not affect the performance of the grafts (Gore & De, 2010;Tognetti et al, 2017), and for this reason, there are practically no eligibility restrictions regarding the age of the donor (NHS UK). Another cause of the observed diversity in the lipid composition in the grafts (even within grafts with the same animal origin) might be the different organs used as raw material.…”

“…Currently, the existing literature regarding age‐related changes in skin lipid composition is not well documented, and different groups have reported variable effects on the concentrations of the three major lipid classes (ceramides, cholesterol, and fatty acids) found in skin (Boireau‐Adamezyk, Baillet‐Guffroy, & Stamatas, ; Rogers, Harding, Mayo, Banks, & Rawlings, ; Sjovall et al, ; Starr et al, ). In any case, it has been demonstrated that the age of the donor animal does not affect the performance of the grafts (Gore & De, ; Tognetti et al, ), and for this reason, there are practically no eligibility restrictions regarding the age of the donor (NHS UK). Another cause of the observed diversity in the lipid composition in the grafts (even within grafts with the same animal origin) might be the different organs used as raw material.…”

A Review of Skin Banking Guidelines and Standards Worldwide: Towards the Harmonization of Guidelines for Skin Banking in Therapeutic Applications for the Regions under the Asia Pacific Burn Association (APBA)

“…There are ongoing discussions to include the EDQM Tissues and Cells Guidelines into the European Pharmacopoeia (personal communication with Dr Sornarajah). Such an initiative will result in greater harmonization of quality standards and promote exchange of tissues between countries [ 6 ], as the standards will become mandatory in the 47 member states.…”

“…The AATB referred to and incorporated the ISO 9000 standards and its quality assurance and quality control recommendations into its own Standards in its seventh edition in 1996 [ 26 ]. The ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System sets out quality management requirements to help organizations be more efficient and improve customer satisfaction by ensuring a traceable standardized quality system [ 6 ]. Hence, the emphasis is on developing a strong customer focus, quality improvement and delivery of consistently good quality products and services.…”

Understanding and Perceptions of Skin Donation and Skin Banking among Health Care Professionals – Tertiary Care Centre in Eastern India

“…. [2] Other organs, such as the liver and kidney, can withstand more than 60% damage, but losing 40% of one's skin can be fatal unless the tissue is replaced. [3] Cylinder explosions, flares, road traffic collisions, acid spillages, cuts, scrapes, chronic unhealed ulcers, and decubitus ulcers, among several other things, cause serious harm.…”