Reinforced Bioartificial Skin in the Form of Collagen Sponge and Threads

Abstract

Bioartificial skin requires high mechanical strength-scaffold to overcome the problem of easily being torn during handling and suturing. In addition, the scaffold should not even have potential toxicity to cell culture and host tissue. Therefore, in this study, we suggest how to make a stronger sponge without using any cross-linking treatments, which will show the latent cytotoxicity on the implant material. We made sponge type of bioartificial skin using its three major components, collagen, dermal fibroblasts, and epidermal keratinocytes. The sponge-type collagen scaffold for skin cell culture was prepared by freeze-drying of 7.5 mg/ml of type I rat tail collagen solution. We reinforced collagen sponge by incorporation of collagen mesh which was made by stacking five layers of 9×9 collagen threads. By this method we could increase tensile strength by as much as three times higher compare to the collagen sponge cross-linked using glutaraldehyde. The ultimate tensile strength of collagen sponges reinforced with collagen threads, uncross-linked collagen sponges, and collagen sponges cross-linked by glutaraldehyde were 0.086, 0.0038, and 0.029 MPa respectively.