SKIN TISSUE ENGINEERING: A REVIEW

Abstract

Tissue engineering (TE) for skin grafting, also known as skin tissue engineering (STE) is a strategy involving the generation of artificial skin by using widely available natural or synthetic materials as substitutes that resemble the native skin i.e., it involves in-vitro fabrication of the biocompatible scaffolds. Earlier the skin grafting needed a healthy donor making the therapy limited due to the chances of immune rejection. Besides this, skin grafting may often result in poor healing in diabetic patients and bleeding problems in the individuals suffering from hemophilia. It may often result in infection of either the donor or the recipient at transplantation site. The emergence of novel methods of TE has overcome the limitations associated with the conventional methods. Various tissues and organs like the heart, skin, lung, liver, cartilage, etc, can be regenerated using TE. TE can be facilitated with the aid of nanotechnology for the generation of scaffolds due to various properties it possess, of which, the major advantageous property involves a large surface area to volume ratio to serve wider range function as well as antimicrobial properties to prevent infections near the damaged area. Often, the different types of stem cells can be used for tissue repairing, due to their self-renewable properties. The skin mimics are often prepared using 3-dimensional bioprinting. This review deals with the applications of TE in skin grafting, typically by manipulation of naturally available materials.