Dermal Tissue Engineering

One recent 3-D cell culture that has shown a lot of promise in dermal tissue engineering is a honeycomb collagen scaffold which was used for a 3-D culture of human skin fibroblasts. This is a biodegradable, mechanically stable, and biocompatible scaffold that allows cell proliferation, adherence, multiplication, development, and the continuation of the cell’s properties. Using a 3-D cell culture on a biodegradable scaffold allows the cells to proliferate and develop into a structure similar to the tissue in the human body.

In their experiment regarding 3-D cell cultures, the human skin fibroblast cells were first propagated in medium and cultured on cell culture dishes. Then, a honeycomb collagen sheet was placed on the proliferating fibroblasts and the fibroblasts adhered quickly to the collagen sheet. The honeycomb collagen sheet was 1 mm thick and the pore size was about 300µm. Then they proliferated inside the pores through the interior walls of the honeycomb and they grew into a composition similar to dermis. The honeycomb collagen sheet was biodegraded by the proteases produced and released by the proliferating fibroblasts.

There are many advantages to using a honeycomb collagen scaffold. One is that it has the capability to get rid of wastes and transport nutrients to the skin cells. Another advantage is that the honeycomb collagen scaffold kept its structure throughout the two months of the experiment without collapsing or deforming. Also, dermal tissue engineering on collagen scaffolds has low antigenicity and preserves live cells for a long period of time. Overall, this design provides the skin cells with the appropriate mechanical support and allows for optimal cell proliferation as in living dermal tissue. This topic interested me because I find it fascinating that they can grow dermis from human skin fibroblast cells.

http://josorge.com/Papers/JBMR.pdf