IBS GRANADA scientists build new models of artificial skin with stem cells from different tissues for immediate use in large burns
The Tissue Engineering group at ibs.GRANADA, led by Dr. Antonio Campos, developed in 2012 a new model of artificial skin with properties very similar to native skin from stem cells from skin biopsies and a biomaterial formed by fibrin and agarose, also designed by the group.
After numerous preclinical investigations and quality controls, this skin was applied for the first time successfully in 2016 to large burns, after its elaboration as an advanced therapy medicine by the IATA (Andalusian Initiative for Advanced Therapies).
The generation of said skin requires for its manufacture to obtain skin biopsies of the unburned areas of the patients in order to subsequently elaborate the artificial skin to implant in the patients, in a process that requires several weeks.
Now, the Tissue Engineering group has achieved the biofabrication of four new models of artificial skin using stem cells from adipose tissue, dental pulp, bone marrow and umbilical cord.
New cellular sources
Scientists have managed to differentiate these stem cells into epithelial tissue on the previously designed biomaterial, thus generating artificial skin from these new cell sources. The results of this work have been published in the journal European Cells & Materials Newspaper.
The advantage of these new models consists in their possible immediate use, without the necessary wait of several weeks for the manufacture of the artificial skin with the cells of the burned patient.
In the research carried out at the UGR, a comparative histological, genetic and histocompatibility study is carried out in the skin made with each type of stem cell, establishing the characteristics of the different models generated and their possible therapeutic use, especially in those patients. whose gravity would not allow them to wait the time necessary to manufacture artificial skin with their own cells.
Bibliographic reference:
Effective use of mesenchymal stem cells in human skin substitutes generated by tissue engineering.
Martin-Piedra MA, Alfonso-Rodriguez CA, Zapater A, Durand-Herrera D, Chato-Astrain J, Campos F, Sanchez-Quevedo MC, Alaminos M1, Garzon I.
Eur Cell Mater. 2019 Mar 29; 37: 233-249. doi: 10.22203 / eCM.v037a14.