Industrial biotechnology application: Biomaterials, promisesfor improved skin tissue engineeringBiomaterials and skin tissue engineering
MIRCEA TAMPA1, TONY HANGAN2*
*Corresponding author
1. Department of Dermatology, Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 37, Dionisie Lupu str., 020022, Bucharest, Romania
2. Department of Dermatology & Department of Medical Informatics and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, Ovidius University of Constanta, University str., 2nd Building, 900470, Constanta, Romania
Abstract
Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary field in biomedical engineering that aims to regenerate new biological material for replacing diseased or damaged skin tissues, being a challenge in consumer care and biotechnology industry. Notably, skin substitutes should have some essential characteristics like being easy to handle, provide vital barrier function with appropriate water flux, being adherent, and have appropriate physical and mechanical properties, non-antigenic showing minimal inflammatory reactivity. Additionally, they should incorporate into the host with minimal scarring and pain facilitating angiogenesis, while still being cost effective. This review highlights insights into biomaterials incorporated into skin substitutes which satisfy most if not all of these criteria when producing novel, smart skin tissues in industrial biotechnology applications.
INTRODUCTION
Tissue engineering is an interdisciplinary area in which the tissue reconstruction should be aware of the pathological findings that could interfere into development and improved other new biological substitutes. Strikingly, an extracellular matrix (ECM) together with a source of cells is usually used to complete this goal. Although the substitutes of different skin tissue could constitute a small amount from the body weight, skin damage such as burns or scars can cause serious health complications (1).
Therefore, skin tissue engineering substitutes play nowadays an important role in treatment of different chronic wounds. Many techniques should be easy to perform when applying to the wound area. The main characteristics like being easy to handle, provide vital barrier function with appropriate water flux, being readily adherent, have appropriate physical and mechanical properties, non-antigenic and shows minimal inflammatory reactivity should be involved (1). The biotechnology industry issue is to design and develop different skin tissue engineering techniques that lead to novel and biomaterials-based skin replacement therapies, whi ...
