Skin Preservation Research Articles

Burn wounds: selection and preservation of skin, natural products, blood, and blood products for burn therapy.

Skin allografts and xenografts are routinely used as dressings to control infection, pain and fluid loss from the burn wound. The procedure for preparing and storing grafts will be reviewed and suggested indications for use will be considered. A method for preparing porcine xenograft will be discussed in some detail. Skin banking by low temperature preservation including conditions and processing necessary for obtaining viable grafts will be discussed. The use of tissue typing matching procedures for obtaining prolonged survival will be considered. Possible harmful effects of grafts will be reviewed. The use of blood and blood products for resuscitation of burn patients is of primary importance in burn patients. The literature will be reviewed concerning a variety of blood and blood products including a consideration of washed cells, single donoplasma, serum albumin and purified blood components for treatment of burned patients. The use and indications for hyper-immune serum and gammu-globulin will be considered. Coagulopathy syndromes, burn wound sepsis, and support of immunologically deficient patients will be discussed on the basis of current literature.

Effects of cortisol on the preservation of rat skin at -3 degrees C.

SUMMARY Although cortisol slightly inhibited the incorporation of 2-14C]glycine into the proteins of rat skin samples incubated in vitro, addition of the hormone to the storage medium had a marked protective effect on protein and DNA metabolism. The incorporation of [2-14C]glycine into the proteins, and to a lesser degree that of [6-3H]thymidine into DNA, were stimulated when the incubated skin had been exposed to cortisol during storage. The skin samples stored in buffer containing cortisol transported α-aminoisobutyric acid more effectively; this was concluded to be due to a stabilizing effect of cortisol on the cell membrane. During storage protein catabolism and possibly protein turnover were stimulated by cortisol.

Clostridial myonecrosis of the abdominal wall: Management after extensive resection

A method of temporary and permanent containment of abdominal viscera after extensive clostridial myonecrosis is described. Debridement is carried out through parallel incisions with maximal preservation of skin and subcutaneous tissue. Marlex mesh is used temporarily until the infection is completely controlled. The skin and subcutaneous tissue are then reapproximated, giving excellent wound coverage and markedly shortening the hospital stay.

Comparative studies on fresh and preserved skin: fundamental biologic differences in behavior as grafts

Comparative studies on fresh and preserved skin: fundamental biologic differences in behavior as grafts

An experimental evaluation of skin graft preservation with silicone fluid

Short-term preservation of rat skin allografts in dimethylpolysiloxane fluid at different temperatures has been experimentally evaluated and described. Since storage of excised skin in silicone at 12 ° allows graft survival, this suggests to the surgeon the possibility of a very simple and rapid short-term source of skin. Despite the fact that methods are available which permit the preservation of skin for longer periods of time, the silicone technique appears to be much less complicated and exacting. Although the attempts to preserve skin in a freezer (−9.5 °) have failed, further information is needed to evaluate the interrelationship between the time-temperature and the biological effects of skin preserved in silicone fluid.

Comparative studies on fresh and preserved skin: fundamental biologic differences in behavior as grafts.

From the Tissue Bank, Clinical Investigation Department, Naval Medical Research Institute, National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland 20014 * Present Address: Department of Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114. ** Acting Orthopedic Surgeon-in-Chief, Children's Hospital Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts.

Absence of antigenicity in freeze-dried skin allografts

Summary Studies performed to elucidate differences between grafts of different types of preserved skin have revealed that freeze-dried skin fails to stimulate immunological reactivity in graft recipients. This finding is unique to the freezedrying process and is not due to lack of association of graft with host.

32. Preservation of human skin in liquid nitrogen: B. H. Athreya, E. L. Grimes,* H. B. Lehr, A. E. Greene, and L. L. Coriell (Institute for Medical Research, Camden, New Jersey, and Harrison Department of Surgical Research, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

32. Preservation of human skin in liquid nitrogen: B. H. Athreya, E. L. Grimes,* H. B. Lehr, A. E. Greene, and L. L. Coriell (Institute for Medical Research, Camden, New Jersey, and Harrison Department of Surgical Research, University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Description of current tissue bank methods of skin preservation

Description of current tissue bank methods of skin preservation

The Freezing, Drying and Storage of Mammalian Skin

ABSTRACT The viability and general preservation of skin that has been subjected in vitro to freezing, drying and other procedures may be tested by transplanting it back to the animal from which it was originally removed. Rabbit’s ear skin withstands either slow or rapid freezing down to the temperature of liquid air. Slow freezing gives better preservation than rapid freezing, but impregnation with glycerol solutions protects skin against some of the harmful consequences of rapid freezing. Epidermal melanoblasts do not withstand rapid freezing unless they have been protected by glycerol solutions. Rapid thawing gives better preservation than slow thawing. Malpighian cells of the epidermis survive slow thawing after impregnation with glycerol solutions but not after impregnation with Ringer’s solution. Skin slowly frozen after impregnation with glycerol solution and stored for 4 months at—79°C. was indistinguishable, on transplantation, from a freshly removed graft. The storage of skin at—79°C. does not result in progressive deterioration during the period of storage. It is shown that the toxicity of glycerol to the various cellular constituents of skin is so slight that it may be disregarded. Isolated epidermal cells withstand exposure to 98·1 % glycerol at room temperature for half an hour. Skin does not withstand dehydration to a degree that results in a final overall water content below about 25 %. Impregnation with glycerol solutions does not increase its capacity to withstand dehydration.

On the Structure of the Hairs of Mylodon Listai and other South American Edentata

ABSTRACT The interest attaching to the disco preserved skin of a great Ground Sloth, very closely allied to if not identical with Mylodon, was considerably increased when it was found that the hairs do not agree in their minute structure with those of the Tree Sloths, Bradypus and Cholœpus. While agreeing with the latter in the absence of a definite medulla, they are destitute of the extra-cortical layer which characterises the hairs of Bradypus, and have not the fluted surface which is such a distinctive feature of the hairs of Cholœpus. The characters of the hairs have been commented upon by several authors in the course of their remarks upon the remains of this ground sloth, but the subject has never been treated exhaustively ; and Professor Ray Lankester suggested to me that the matter was worthy of further inquiry, and that it was desirable to compare the newly discovered hairs not only with those of Bradypus and Cholœpus, but also with those of the ant-eaters and armadillos.

Bibliographical Notices Hints on Health, with Directions for the Preservation of the Skin, Hair, Teeth, Nails, &c. By William Edward Coale, M.D. Boston: l857. Ticknor & Fields.

Bibliographical Notices Hints on Health, with Directions for the Preservation of the Skin, Hair, Teeth, Nails, &c. By William Edward Coale, M.D. Boston: l857. Ticknor & Fields.