A biodegradable, 3D-printed skin could speed up the healing of chronic wounds for people with diabetes, after successful tests in rats.
Due to problems with their circulation and other complications, around one-fifth of people with diabetes experience wounds that heal too slowly, or not at all. This can lead to severe infections and, in extreme cases, limb amputations.
Now, at the National Taiwan University and her colleagues have created an artificial skin that can boost wound repair, by embedding skin cells into a biodegradable scaffold made from gelatin and the plastic polyurethane. The material can be 3D printed to match the size of a wound.
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The researchers made 1.5-centimetre-wide circular wounds on diabetic rats and treated them with either the artificial skin or commercially available gel-based bandages. The 3D-printed skin shrunk wounds to less than 1 micrometre across after a month, while wounds treated with the control bandages were more than twice as large after the same time period.
Further analysis revealed that wounds treated with the 3D-printed skin contained more than twice as many blood vessels and more than double the amount of collagen 鈥� a protein that promotes wound repair 鈥� compared with wounds that had control bandages. New blood vessels help wounds to heal by supplying cells with oxygen and nutrients.
鈥淭his research is potentially exciting, and if the results could be replicated in the real clinical situation for people with chronic wounds, including those associated with diabetes, that would be a breakthrough,鈥� says at the University of Manchester, UK.
鈥淸However], no promising advanced wound therapy has so far translated into clinical benefit in robust, randomised, controlled trials. This is probably because our animal models do not reflect the human condition [very well], and also because our understanding of the causes of impaired healing is very partial,鈥� she says.
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