GRAFTING RESEARCH OF TISSUE ENGINEERED ARTIFICIAL RAT SKIN EQUIVALENT ON FULL-THICKNESS WOUNDS

Objective To study the grafting effect of tissue engineered artificial rat skin equivalent on full thickness wounds. Methods Full thickness wounds(Φ20mm) were made on the backs of twenty four nude mice which be divided in artificial skin(AS) group, chitosan membrane(CH) group and control group. All wounds were covered with AS, CH and petrolatum gauze , respectively. The wounds were observed daily by infrared ray scanning and histological examination on the 3rd , 7th, 14th, and 21st days. Results The wounds in AS group healed better than those in CH group and control group. The artificial skin achieved a good adherence to wound and there were some crescent regenerative blood vessel appeared in the AS group on the 3rd day of grafting. Then, the epidermal cells in artificial skin proliferated and differentiated to form a new epidermis consisting of stratum basal, stratum spinosum, stratum granulosum, stratum corneum almost like the natural skin. Dermis of the skin consisted of crescent fibroblasts and extracellular matrix secreted by fibroblasts; the chitosan lattice was degraded and replaced by the extracellular matrix. On the 14th day of grafting, the wounds healed. The color of artificial skin grafted was very similar to the natural skin and the formed scar was very small. Conclusion A kind of new reconstructive tissue engineering artificial skin has good histocompatibility and can be transplanted into the full thickness wounds.