Washington: Scientists have created a first-of-its-kind mobile system that can print a layer of skin directly on a person’s wound. Chronic, large or non-healing wounds such as diabetic pressure ulcers are costly because they require multiple treatments.
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.
The cells are mixed into a hydrogel and placed into the bioprinter. Integrated imaging technology involving a device that scans the wound, feeds the data into the software to tell the print heads which cells to deliver exactly layer by layer.
Doing so replicates and accelerates the formation of normal skin structure, a study in the journal Science reports. The researchers demonstrated proof-of-concept of the system by printing skin directly onto pre-clinical models. The next step is to conduct a clinical trial in humans.
