Tissue engineering: a rapidly growing field of skin research.

gate and her group reviewed bioprocessing of human fetal cells for tissue engineering of skin. Wiegand and Hipler evaluate the biocompatibility and cytotoxicity using keratinocyte and fibroblast cultures. The importance of tissue engineering is covered by 2 chapters by Macri and Clark as well as by Auger et al. Immunological aspects and tissue engineering in the context of in vitro irritation models and immune reactions are addressed by S. Gibbs. Santiago-Walker et al. describe the morphological aspects and the biological basis for the application of organotypic three-dimensional model systems in the study of melanocytes. We hope that this special issue of Skin Pharmacology and Physiology will give you a good overview of some, but not all, aspects of tissue engineering. We are curious how this aspect will be addressed in 5 years; certainly in a different way and to the benefit of patients with so far untreatable skin diseases.