Wound and Skin Healing in Space: The 3D Bioprinting Perspective.

Nieves Cubo-Mateo,Michael Gelinsky

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2021.720217

Abstract

Skin wound healing is known to be impaired in space. As skin is the tissue mostly at risk to become injured during manned space missions, there is the need for a better understanding of the biological mechanisms behind the reduced wound healing capacity in space. In addition, for far-distant and long-term manned space missions like the exploration of Mars or other extraterrestrial human settlements, e.g., on the Moon, new effective treatment options for severe skin injuries have to be developed. However, these need to be compatible with the limitations concerning the availability of devices and materials present in space missions. Three-dimensional (3D) bioprinting (BP) might become a solution for both demands, as it allows the manufacturing of multicellular, complex and 3D tissue constructs, which can serve as models in basic research as well as transplantable skin grafts. The perspective article provides an overview of the state of the art of skin BP and approach to establish this additive manufacturing technology in space. In addition, the several advantages of BP for utilization in future manned space missions are highlighted.

Highlights

The human body, in general, has a huge capacity for wound healing; it depends on the general health situation of the individual, the extent of damage suffered by tissues, and the capacity of those cells to multiply
Due to the fact that the extracellular matrix (ECM) is the largest component of the dermis, constituting over 70% of this tissue (Widgerow et al, 2016), the fibroblasts are in most cases applied as part of a bioink, consisting of hydrogel-formingpolymer solutions, whereas the keratinocytes are bioprinted both with the matrix components or just as a cell suspension on top of the dermal layer
Skin BP is one of the applications being already investigated in depth, and numerous studies have proven the applicability in principle, utilizing various BP technologies, cell types, and biomaterials

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The human body, in general, has a huge capacity for wound healing; it depends on the general health situation of the individual, the extent of damage suffered by tissues, and the capacity of those cells to multiply. One has to distinguish two fundamentally different approaches in skin BP: one is the fabrication of skin-like grafts in the lab, which commonly are further cultivated in vitro before implantation onto a wound, whereas the other describes the direct deposition of cells and materials onto the lesion of the patient (or experimental animal) The latter has been defined as “in situ” or “in vivo BP” and can be performed with a robotic arm device or just a handheld deposition system (Singh et al, 2020). The in situ BP approach, briefly explained above, is of interest for applications in space flight as it would provide a fast and easy opportunity to support wound healing without the necessity to further cultivate and mature the bioprinted constructs prior to deposition. The space company OHB is developing for the German Space Agency at DLR a handheld skin BP device, based on the extrusion printing principle, which shall be sent to the ISS at the end of the year 2021 for evaluation (DLR, 2020)

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

Findings

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT