Surgical Research

A complex autologous skin engineered in the laboratoty

The main goal of our research is the in vivo construction of an autologous skin substitute that ideally approximates the qualities of human skin and that can be used in procedures of skin replacement in reconstructive and plastic surgery.

Extensive skin loss may result from burns, soft tissue trauma, various skin diseases, and from removal of giant naevi. Taken together, these conditions still represent a significant clinical problem. Although most of these patients survive today, and although various skin transplantation techniques finally allow restoration of skin integrity, the functional and cosmetic results are far from ideal. This is mainly due to disfiguring and often disabling hypertrophic scarring and keloid formation which is a consistent and lifelong sequel after large scale skin transplantation, particularly in children.

Thus, an autologous dermo-epidermal skin substitute (consisting of cultured human keratinocytes, endothelial cells, myoepithelial cells and fibroblasts) which is timely available, easily transplantable and that yields functional and cosmetic long-term results with minimal or even no scarring would be an optimal solution to repair large skin defects.

The Tissue Biology Research Unit is a team of scientists working on the following research projects:

• Engineering autologous dermo-epidermal skin composites in vitro
• Identifying and maintaining the epidermal stem cell compartment
• Accelerating vascularization in skin composites

For further information see www.skingineering.ch

See also our publication list