Tissue-engineered skin substitutes: a prospect evaluation from the aspects of morphology and function / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Tissue engineering is a booming subject in recent years, involving skin, cornea, bone, cartilage, tendon and etc. Noticeably, tissue-engineered skin is an issue of concern, which provides an alluring prospect for the repair of skin defects. OBJECTIVE: To overview the latest research progress of tissue-engineered skin. METHODS: A computer-based research of Medline database from 1996 to 2017 was performed, with the English keywords of epidermis, dermis, tissue engineered skin. The latest research status of tissue-engineered skin was summarized in views of epidermal and dermal substitutes, followed by exploring the problems and prospects of tissue-engineered skin. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: A total of 65 literatures were included. Complex skin substitutes include epidermis and dermis, in which hair follicles, sweat glands, sebaceous glands and other cutaneous appendages are absent. Therefore, how to solve above problems is a hotspot issue and major trend in tissue-engineered skin. Tissue-engineered skin aims to construct permanent skin substitutes containing melanocytes and Langerhans cells rapidly. Since the current tissue-engineered skin substitutes can completely replace skin tissues neither in morphology nor in function, in-depth studies are expected in the near future.