Aerosol vehicle for delivery of epidermal cells – An in vitro study

Early coverage of large burn wounds is often limited by the availability of donor sites for skin grafts. One solution to this problem is the use of cultured epithelial autografts, whereby a small sample of uninjured skin is obtained from the patient and its keratinocytes are grown in a cell culture environment. Over a three to four week period the number of cells can be expanded more than 5000-fold, yielding enough cells to cover virtually the entire body surface area of an adult patient (1-3). Most commonly, the cultured cells are then attached to a backing of fine mesh gauze and placed onto the debrided wound (4-7). The process of applying the cells onto the gauze, and then onto the patient, is time-consuming and labour intensive. In addition, a large container is required to house the sheets of gauze while the cells are transferred from the laboratory to the clinical facility where the cells will be applied to the patient. It is speculated that a simpler process would involve suspending keratinocytes in a solution that could be sprayed as an aerosol onto the wound. This in vitro study investigated the possibility of delivering epidermal cells to a cell culture plate via an aerosol vehicle. A simple and inexpensive method is described for aerosolized delivery of cells to the culture plate.