Washington: Scientists have created a first-of-its-kind mobile system that can printed a layer of skin directly on a person’s wound. Chronic, large or non-healing wounds such as diabetic pressure ulcers are especially costly because they often require multiple treatments. It is also estimated that burn injuries account for 10-30 per cent of combat casualties in conventional warfare for military personnel.
“The unique aspect of this technology is the mobility of the system and the ability to provide on-site management of extensive wounds by scanning and measuring them in order to deposit the cells directly where they are needed to create skin,” said Sean Murphy, an assistant professor at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) in the US.
The major skin cells – dermal fibroblasts and epidermal keratinocytes – are easily isolated from a small biopsy of uninjured tissue and expanded. Fibroblasts are cells that synthesise the extracellular matrix and collagen that play a critical role in wound healing while keratinocytes are the predominant cells found in the epidermis, the outermost layer of the skin. —PTI
