Fig. 12

Fabricating a Bioengineered Skin Substitute (Graft). Schematic representation of generating a skin graft with autologous skin cells (i.e. keratinocytes and/or fibroblasts). A biopsy of a patient can be performed to remove autologous skin cells which can then be culture onto/within a polymeric scaffold in vitro. The scaffold can be fabricated a number of ways, depicted here is the methodology of 3D printing of a collagenous lattice. The skin cells are cultured on the polymeric scaffold for typically several weeks and then removed from cultured, and can be applied to a patient as a customized, autologous skin graft using their own cells. The graft is thought to work via a number of mechanisms, including coverage and protection of the wound, the embedded skin cells secrete biologics to promote wound healing within the native tissue, and the graft matrix can serve as a healthy tissue substrate for resident wound cells to grow onto/into and repopulate