Current advances in basic stem cell research and tissue engineering augur well for the development of improved cultured skin tissue substitutes: a class of products that is still fraught with limitations for clinical use. Although the ability to grow autologous keratinocytes in-vitro from a small skin biopsy into sheets of stratified epithelium (within 3 to 4 weeks) helped alleviate the problem...

OBJECTIVE The search for an ideal temporary skin substitute is a continuous quest. Without the ability to provide active transport systems powered by adenosine triphosphate or adenosine diphosphate that pump fluid out on demand, all skin substitutes, however effective, would be a compromise. Therefore, the best that any current wound covering design can do is to strive to produce all the other ...

Introduction Skin is a complex, multi-layered material which exhibits non-linear, anisotropic and viscoelastic behaviour. Its structure is complex and can be broadly divided into three main layers: the epidermis, the dermis and hypodermis. The thickest of these layers, the dermis, consists of strong stiff collagen fibres which govern many of the mechanical properties of human skin [1]. The mech...

BACKGROUND Autologous engineered skin substitutes comprised of keratinocytes, fibroblasts, and biopolymers can serve as an adjunctive treatment for excised burns. However, engineered skin lacks a vascular plexus at the time of grafting, leading to slower vascularization and reduced rates of engraftment compared with autograft. Hypothetically, vascularization of engineered skin grafts can be imp...

Skin regeneration requires the coordinated integration of concomitant biological and molecular events in the extracellular wound environment during overlapping phases of inflammation, proliferation, and matrix remodeling. This process is highly efficient during normal wound healing. However, chronic wounds fail to progress through the ordered and reparative wound healing process and are unable ...

Significant progress has been made over the past 25 years in the development of in vitro-engineered substitutes that mimic human skin, either to be used as grafts for the replacement of lost skin, or for the establishment of in vitro human skin models. In this sense, laboratory-grown skin substitutes containing dermal and epidermal components offer a promising approach to skin engineering. In p...

This chapter will focus on techniques that have been developed to measure transcutaneous bilirubin (TcB). The first electronic TcB device proved to be useful when used as a screening method for identifying newborns who needed a serum bilirubin determination. Newer TcB devices can be used not only as screening tools but also as reliable substitutes for serum bilirubin measurements. The Chromatic...

Molecular definition of disease at the level of the gene and advances in recombinant DNA technology suggest that many diseases are amenable to correction by genes not bearing the defective elements that result in disease. Many questions must be answered before this therapy can be used to correct chronic diseases. These questions fall into safety and efficacy categories. Experience with transpla...

Four children, from 5 to 10 years aged, presented the Sylvanus Olympio Hospital (SOTH) of Lomé (Togo) with severe (second- and third-degree) burns 25–78% total body surface area (TBSA) due flame in domestic accidents were treated using skin substitutes. We conducted substitution by dermal templates (Integra®) for two children allografts other two. In cases templates, we performed a wound excisi...