Tissue-engineered biological dressing accelerates skin wound healing in mice via formation of provisional connective tissue

Abstract

Despite recent advances in bioengineered therapies, wound healing remains a serious clinical problem. In acute full-thickness wounds, it is desirable to replace both the damaged dermis and epidermis in a single procedure. This approach requires appropriate properties of tissue-engineered dressings to support simultaneous regenerative processes in the dermis and epidermis while they are temporally separated in the natural wound healing process. In this study, a collagen-based scaffold inhabited by skin cells was employed. Its ability to stimulate the skin repair of full-thickness excisional splinting wounds in a murine model was evaluated in comparison with that of acellular collagen and commercially available gelatin porous sponge Spongostan®. The study showed that cell-based skin equivalent promoted the immediate filling of the wound bed and provided simultaneous reorganization of the dermal component into highly vascularized granulation-like tissue and rapid epithelialization, thus improving the quality of healing. Inflammation was delayed and less pronounced. In contrast, acellular collagen and especially Spongostan® failed to demonstrate similar results. The porous structure of Spongostan® prevented effective long-term epithelialization and impeded the formation of an adequate connective tissue at the wound bed.