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NATURE|Vol 445|22 February 2007|doi:10.1038/nature05664

Progress and opportunities for

tissue-engineered skin
Sheila MacNeil1
Tissue-engineered skin is now a reality. For patients with extensive full-thickness burns, laboratory
expansion of skin cells to achieve barrier function can make the difference between life and death, and it
was this acute need that drove the initiation of tissue engineering in the 1980s. A much larger group of
patients have ulcers resistant to conventional healing, and treatments using cultured skin cells have been
devised to restart the wound-healing process. In the laboratory, the use of tissue-engineered skin provides
insight into the behaviour of skin cells in healthy skin and in diseases such as vitiligo, melanoma, psoriasis
and blistering disorders.
The overriding function of tissue-engineered skin is to restore barrier
function to patients in whom this has been severely compromised. Figure 1 shows the structure of normal skin, and Fig. 2 shows an example
of a patient in whom tissue-engineered skin has been used clinically.
Any loss of full-thickness skin of more than 4 cm in diameter will not
heal well without a graft1. In cases in which considerable amounts of
skin are needed, the gold standard approach is to take split-thickness
grafts that contain all of the epidermis but only part of the dermis. These
are removed from healthy areas of the body and used to treat damaged
areas. Patients will regrow an epidermis from the source sites if there
are sufficient epidermal cells remaining in the residual dermis. Before
tissue-engineered skin was available, surgeons had to avoid making
the patients condition acutely worse by removing too much epidermis
from elsewhere on the body (burn fatalities after initial stabilization
are usually due to an insufficient barrier failing to prevent the onset of
bacterial sepsis).
Acute burns are not numerically significant in the western world2,3,
where they have proved to be largely avoidable by education and lifestyle, but they remain a major healthcare problem for developing countries. In these communities there are neither the economic resources
nor the infrastructure to establish tissue-engineering technologies, but
simple knowledge transfer could make a considerable difference. In
the developed world, life expectancy and affluence have increased so
markedly that chronic wounds associated with ageing and diabetes have
become very significant4. These are expensive, both economically for
the healthcare system and in human terms for the patient5. Repeated
applications of skin cells, whether these be keratinocytes or fibroblasts,
autologous (the patients own) or allogeneic (from human donors), can
all offer some benefit to chronic non-healing wounds in prompting
them to restart healing. Here cultured cells are being used as biological
factories to assist the bodys own wound repair mechanisms. Other
areas of increasing clinical potential are applications in reconstructive surgery, scar revision, scar prevention, correction of pigmentation
defects and the treatment of some blistering diseases (such as congenital
naevi68).
This article highlights progress in this field, reviewing the underpinning cell biology, the key clinical landmarks and facilitating biomaterials, and examines the role of tissue-engineered skin in developing our
understanding of skin biology.

Principles of skin tissue engineering

Skin comprises several different cell types. Keratinocytes are the most
common cell type in the epidermis and form the surface barrier layer.
Melanocytes are found in the lower layer of the epidermis and provide skin colour. Fibroblasts form the lower dermal layer and provide
strength and resilience (Fig. 1). Most tissue-engineered skin is created by expanding skin cells in the laboratory (at a rate much greater
than would be achieved on the patient) and using them to restore barrier function (the primary objective for burns patients) or to initiate
wound healing (for chronic non-healing ulcers). Other uses include
accelerating healing, reducing pain in superficial burns and correcting conditions in which healing has been suboptimal (for example, in
scars, contractures or pigmentary defects). Skin needs to be capable of
regeneration, so although synthetic materials can be used temporarily to provide a barrier, a dermal matrix or a transfer mechanism, for
longer-term healing all synthetic materials must eventually be discarded
or replaced by live skin cells.
Three factors are paramount in the development of tissue-engineered
materials: the safety of the patient, clinical efficacy and convenience of
use. Any cultured cell material carries the risk of transmitting viral or
bacterial infection, and some support materials (such as bovine collagen
and murine feeder cells) may also have a disease risk. There must be
clear evidence that tissue-engineered materials provide benefit to the
patient. Essential characteristics are that it heals well and has the physical
properties of normal skin. To achieve effective healing the tissue-engineered products must attach well to the wound bed, be supported by
new vasculature, not be rejected by the immune system and be capable
of self repair throughout a patients life. Finally, materials need to be
convenient to use or they will not achieve clinical uptake.

Key developments
Keratinocytes were first reliably cultured in the laboratory about 30
years ago9,10. This developed into the production of small sheets of cells
two or three layers thick11 (known as cultured epithelial autografts,
CEAs) that were used to treat burns victims12,13. The Timeline shows
key events in the development of tissue-engineered skin. Evidence suggests that cultured skin cells returned to a patient retain the capacity to
self-renew for a lifetime. Patients who received skin in the mid-1980s13
are alive today and have not required further treatment. Research

1
The Tissue Engineering Group, Department of Engineering Materials and Division of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine, Kroto Research Institute, North Campus, University of Sheffield, Broad
Lane, Sheffield S3 7HQ, UK.

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found to be problematic, because cells failed to adhere securely22. This

led to the development of reconstructed tissue-engineered skin based
on autologous keratinocytes, fibroblasts and bovine collagen sheets (refs
2224; see ref. 25 for a review). These attached well to an Integra-treated
wound bed. As our knowledge of burns treatments developed, the use
of donor cells to treat chronic wounds was explored and there is now a
range of products to reinitiate wound healing in such cases.

Sweat gland
pore
Hair shaft

Epidermis

Current progress and challenges

Basement
membrane

Dermis

Sweat gland
duct
Subcutaneous
layer

Capillary
Touch receptor

Figure 1 | The structure of human skin. This diagram of human skin shows
the two main layers of skin the upper epidermal barrier layer and the
lower, much thicker, dermis. The epidermal barrier layer is relatively thin
(0.10.2 mm in depth) and securely attached to the underlying dermis by
a specialized basement membrane zone. This consists of several different
types of collagen fibre, which attach cells securely to the underlying
dermis, and is visible at the electron-microscope level. The dermis varies
in thickness depending on its site in the body and is composed primarily
of collagen I, with dermal inclusions of hair shafts and sweat glands, which
are lined with epidermal keratinocytes. The dermis is well vascularized and
also contains receptors for touch, temperature and pain. Keratinocytes in
the epidermis rely solely on diffusion from the adjacent dermal capillary
network. These cells progressively differentiate from cells in the basal layer,
which is located on the basement membrane and gives rise to daughter
keratinocytes, which are pushed upwards. These stratify, lose their nuclei
and eventually become an integrated sheet of keratin, which is later shed.
The upper keratinized epidermal layers provide the barrier layer, which
resists bacterial entry and prevents fluid and electrolyte loss. (Image
adapted, with permission, from ref. 79.)

in vitro has indicated that skin is the most accessible of all adult stemcell populations1416 (see page 834).
Without a well-vascularized dermal wound bed, cultured keratinocytes alone are of limited value in treating full-thickness burns17. In
such cases it is necessary to replace both epidermal and dermal layers
of skin. Accepted practice18 in these cases is to debride the burned tissue
(often to the muscle fascia), provide a dermal equivalent17,19 and, once
this has become well vascularized, provide an epidermal layer. This need
to provide a dermis prompted the evaluation of a range of biomaterials, both natural and synthetic. Donor (cadaveric) skin is commonly
used for managing serious burns and treating chronic wounds. It can
be grafted onto full-thickness wounds and will become vascularized.
The upper epidermal layer (which is not immune-system compatible)
is removed after about 3 weeks, leaving behind a vascularized donor
dermis, which provides an ideal wound bed for subsequent skin grafts
or tissue-engineered skin graft substitutes17. Donor skin is currently an
underused resource that could be especially valuable in the developing
world. Skin banks can be established at much lower cost than that of
purchasing other dermal substitutes. With good banking practices and
sterilization20 the risks of using donor skin can be reduced to that of
using blood.
Another useful dermal substitute is Integra21. This was designed for the
management of major burns and comprises bovine collagen and shark
chondroitin sulphate with a silicone membrane that functions as a temporary barrier. The material is grafted onto the wound bed and under
this membrane vasculogenesis occurs. After vascularization, the silicone
barrier membrane is removed and replaced with a barrier of the patients
own cells either a split-thickness skin graft or tissue-engineered material. Direct application of cultured cells to an Integra wound bed was

Currently available tissue-engineered products can be categorized into

three groups (Box 1). There are those that replace the epidermal layer
only, those that provide a dermal substitute, and a small number that
provide both. In some clinical conditions (such as non-healing ulcers
and superficial burns) simply transferring laboratory-expanded cells
can benefit patients, but the treatment of major full-thickness burns
requires the replacement of both dermis and epidermis. There are four
major challenges in this field: improving safety, finding a substitute for
split-thickness grafts, improving angiogenesis in replacement tissue
once it has been grafted to the wound bed, and improving ease of use.
Safety
The predominant culture methodology9,10 uses murine fibroblasts and
bovine serum. This process pre-dated knowledge of prion diseases and
concerns that murine cells might contain viruses able to transform
human cells. To reduce risk, murine feeder fibroblasts are subjected
to lethal gamma radiation and serum is sourced from countries where
herds are free from bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE). However,
if BSE spreads worldwide, serum-free media will become a necessity.
Early versions of this proved unreliable but more promising products,
such as Epilife (for an example of use see ref. 26), now exist. As these
are proprietary products, transfer to the clinic is restricted, but registration by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is underway.
There are also specific safety issues with natural biomaterials used in
skin reconstruction. Xenotransplantation the use of porcine tissue in
humans carries the risk of stimulating antibodies to the Gal epitope.
This membrane glycoprotein is present in small amounts on pig tissue
and has the potential to activate human complement, causing acute
rejection27, so particular care must be taken to remove this before use.
Donor cells need to be from screened donors to avoid viral diseases,
and the products that use them (such as Dermagraft28, Transcyte29, Apligraft30 and Orcel31) need to be from screened cell banks. Donor cells
can benefit patients in two ways they can act as biological factories
to stimulate wound healing through the production of growth factors,
and they can also be used as temporary dressings. Donor fibroblasts can
be used both for chronic wound stimulation and in dermal replacement

Figure 2 | An example of the clinical use of tissue-engineered skin.

a, The appearance of reconstructed tissue-engineered human skin based
on sterilized de-epidermized acellular donor dermis to which the patients
own laboratory-expanded keratinocytes and fibroblasts were added.
b, The appearance of this reconstructed skin 2 months after its use in
elective surgery to correct contraction in a patient who had suffered severe
skin contractions as a result of earlier burns injuries. The tissue-engineered
skin graft was placed in the axilla to allow the patient a more normal range
of movement. (Images reproduced, with permission, from ref. 39.)
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Timeline
Understanding of the
co-dependence of keratinocytes
and fibroblasts8183

Use of donor skin

for treatment of
full-thickness burns80

Keratinocyte culture
established9,10

1970

Clinical use of CEA

in burns patients12,13

1975

1980

Reconstructed skin using

autologous keratinocytes and
fibroblasts in bovine collagen for
use in patients with severe burns22

Use of CEA with

donor skin as a
dermal alternative17

1985

Culture of keratinocytes into

small sheets for grafting11

1990

Determination of the
replicative capacity
of keratinocytes14

1995

2000

Donor keratinocytes found

not to survive long term32

Development of a synthetic
dermal alternative (Integra)19

for severe burns. However, there is no evidence that donor keratinocytes

have ever been used successfully in the long-term treatment of fullthickness burns32,33. One unanswered question in this area is whether
donor fibroblasts survive long term when used clinically. Donor skin
has been in use since the early 1980s17,34,35 and no problems have been
documented in association with residual donor fibroblasts. Pig skin is
also used as a temporary substitute (for example, Permacol36). However,
the development of a successful synthetic dermal substitute would considerably reduce many of these risks.
Split-thickness graft substitutes
Although split-thickness grafts remain the gold-standard treatment
for many clinical conditions, they are not always available in sufficient
quantity, giving rise to the clinical need for tissue-engineered alternatives. Commercial products are beginning to emerge to meet this need
(such as Permaderm, previously known as Cincinnati skin substitute37)
but there are still considerable challenges to be met. When delivering
keratinocytes to deep burns, the stability of the attachment of the keratinocytes to the underlying dermis is the key issue. It is very difficult for
these cells to attach well (equivalent to early-stage basement membrane
formation) unless the wound bed has been well prepared to achieve
a vascularized dermis or dermal equivalent. A better approach is to
synthesize a reconstructed skin in the laboratory in which attachment
between keratinocytes and dermis can be secured22,38,39 (Fig. 2). Angiogenesis can also be a problem. The maximum thickness of skin-replacement material that can easily become vascularized is about 0.4 mm,
and failure to take this into consideration when using reconstructed
skin based on human allodermis can result in delayed angiogenesis and
loss of grafts39. In grafts thicker than 0.4 mm, new blood vessels cannot
penetrate quickly enough to feed the epidermal layer. Reconstructed
skin placed over fat or poorly vascularized wound beds will be lost. The
Boyce group found that the most reliable take of skin equivalents is
obtained if the wound bed is pretreated with a product such as Integra21
to achieve good dermal vascularization before grafting22. Even after the
successful restoration of barrier function (the immediate objective in
treating burn injuries), aesthetic appearance can be far from ideal. For
example, contracture of grafts39 and abnormal pigmentation40,41 can
occur. Clinicians and research scientists might consider wound healing and restoration of barrier function with full mobility to be great
achievements, and contracture and abnormal pigmentation to be lesser
considerations. However, for the patient these issues are important and
more must be done to improve the quality of the final result.
Any three-dimensional (3D) reconstructed skin needs a dermal scaffold. The development of biomaterials for clinical use is an extensive
876

and rapidly expanding field (see ref. 42 for a review). In skin tissue engineering the ideal bioscaffold for in vivo use must not induce a toxic or
immune response or result in excessive inflammation. It should have
an acceptably low (preferably no) level of disease risk, be slowly biodegradable, support the reconstruction of normal tissue and have similar
mechanical and physical properties to the skin it replaces. It should
also be repairable, readily available and capable of being prepared and
stored with a long shelf life. Both natural materials (such as extracted
FDA-approved bovine collagen or hyaluronic acid, or acellular natural
human or porcine matrices) and synthetic FDA-approved biodegradable
scaffolds (such as poly-l-lactide, used in dissolvable sutures and related
polymers) are in use.
Cell delivery approaches
Improving ease of use for both clinicians and patients is essential if
skin repair products are to achieve their full potential. A number of
different strategies have been explored. Keratinocytes can be grown
into integrated cell sheets (CEAs, now available as Epicel43), made into
suspensions and sprayed onto wound sites with44 or without fibrin (for
example, CellSpray45) or delivered on various carrier dressings ranging
from bovine collagen46 to a chemically defined polymer carrier dressing
(such as Myskin47). Cells have also been cultured from hair follicles and
delivered as small sheets (for example EpiDex48). So far, there have been
few studies comparing one method with another49. Irrespective of how
keratinocytes are delivered to the wound bed, healing success depends
mostly on the condition of the wound bed the condition of keratinocytes is less important. Consequently, the use of any one particular
form of cell delivery will ultimately be determined by factors such as
ease of use, cost, transportation and variables other than the biological
health of the cells.
An example of this has been provided by work at Sheffield University
in the UK, where cultured cells have been delivered to burns patients
since 1992. A 10-year audit revealed that there was considerable waste
during the use of CEA sheets, as this method does not allow much flexibility in the timing of cell delivery to the patient50. Accordingly, the
preference now is for subconfluent cells to be delivered on a chemically
defined carrier dressing (for both chronic wounds51 and burns injuries52), from which the cells transfer to the wound bed. The inert carrier
dressing is coated with an extremely thin polymer containing acid functional groups using the technique of plasma polymerization53. Repeated
applications can promote wound healing in chronic wounds51. As with
other such studies, this technique requires regular repeated applications
of cells (either autologous or allogeneic) to achieve healing in wounds
that may have been stuck for a long period of time54.

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Clinical success but economic failure

The relatively small number of patients with severe burns in the developed world and the challenging economics of treating these patients
explain why relatively few commercial companies have developed
autologous keratinocyte-based products for use in this area. Most companies have focused on the larger chronic wounds market with more
off-the-shelf approaches using either cell-free materials as temporary
wound dressings (for example Integra21) or donor cells in some form
of scaffold (such as Dermagraft28). Tissue engineering of skin had such
obvious clinical benefits that it led to unrealistic commercial and clinical
expectations. Initially, the emphasis was solely on patient benefit, but
it quickly turned to commercial viability. However, there was no clear
framework for the regulation of tissue engineering, and the need for
the parallel development of regulatory controls (a very slow process) in
this new medical area has been a considerable problem for commercial
operations. Considerable progress has been made, but after 25 years
there is still no uniform international approach to this issue. Administrative lead times for these new activities have proved slower than
scientific lead times. Tissue-engineered products do not fit healthcare
models for developing medical devices or drugs.
Treatment of patients with extensive burns is neither cheap nor easy.
The cost of production is always higher with autologous cells than with
allogeneic cells. Although the latter have many uses, they cannot be
used for the permanent repair of severe burns and financing these high
costs of production was a challenge in the fields early years. Against this
background, it is not surprising that some of the companies that have
made major contributions to the area and developed clinically effective
products have not achieved commercial success. For example, Dermagraft28 achieved clinical success in treating non-healing ulcers but is not
yet commercially viable. Others, such as Apligraf30, have survived in the
market place and been a financial success.
With hindsight, there are some obvious lessons. A new market is
unlikely to reimburse high-cost products until these have been proved
to be considerably more effective than standard treatments. The need
for user-friendly products that do not require specialist expertise is clear.
Finally, the speed with which regulatory mechanisms can be developed
is a critical success factor, especially for smaller companies. The instant
successes reported by the popular press are, in reality, the result of stubborn persistence by relatively few groups.

Laboratory uses of tissue-engineered skin

In addition to the clinical uses of tissue-engineered skin there are
many non-clinical research applications for reconstructed skin tissue,
especially 3D models. Engineered skin is currently delivering value in
aspects of skin biology research as diverse as reducing animal experimentation, investigation of cellcell and cellextracellular-matrix
interactions, skin barrier penetration, wound healing, angiogenesis,
regulation of pigmentation, skin contraction and investigation of skin
diseases such as melanoma invasion, psoriasis and skin blistering disorders. The next decade will see increasing use of 3D models, in which
physiological interactions between different skin cells that cannot occur
in standard monolayer cultures are possible. Much current knowledge
is based on 2D cultures, and this will need to be revalidated.
For in vitro use, the design criteria for 3D scaffolds are less exacting
than for in vivo use. The scaffold should be fit for purpose, that is, it
should allow skin cells to form an epithelium, to communicate with
each other and to mimic as far as possible the responses of normal skin
cells when exposed to a range of biological agents. The reconstructed
skin should deliver the required biology, but, for example, for in vitro
toxicity studies, scaffolds made of non-biodegradable material may
be adequate55,56. These scaffolds lack any functioning vasculature or
immune system, so cannot be used as a complete substitute for in vivo
animal or human studies, but they have a significant advantage in the
ability to add or delete different cell types to assess their relevance to the
aspect of skin biology under investigation. This cannot be readily done
in vivo. These models are contributing to many areas of research, some
of which are detailed below.

INSIGHT REVIEW

Alternatives to animal testing

One of the main impetuses for developing tissue-engineered skin has
been increased pressure to find alternatives to animal testing for the
many thousands of chemical additives used in human skin products.
In Europe, humanitarian reasons for reducing animal experimentation
have now translated to directives from the European Union57. Although
such models cannot completely remove the need for some animal experimentation (because of the lack of immune and circulatory responses)
they can massively reduce the number of animal dermatotoxicity tests.
Substantial investment in the development of skin models for testing
pharmaceutical cosmetic and chemical compounds has been undertaken
in recent years by companies such as LOreal58,59 and Skin Ethic60. This
has led to the development of epithelial cell models to study agents that
might induce toxicity or irritancy. At present, two reconstructed human
skin models, Epiderm and Episkin, are being evaluated in an ECVAM
(European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods) Skin Irritation Validation Study61. However, although many commercial 3D models of skin contain keratinocytes, they need to be improved to include
fibroblasts. Recent experience56 shows that the presence of fibroblasts
helps keratinocytes cope with potentially toxic agents. Fibroblast support

Box 1 | Examples of currently available skin-replacement materials

Epithelial cover
Involves the delivery of autologous keratinocytes as one of the following:
An integrated sheet such as Epicel (Genzyme Tissue Repair).
This is developed from the methodology originally pioneered
in 1981 (ref. 12). A biopsy of the patients cells is grown into an
integrated sheet and enzymatically detached for delivery to the
patient43.
Subconfluent cells on a carrier such as Myskin (CellTran)47. Cells
are delivered to the patient before they reach confluence on a
chemically defined carrier dressing.
Small sheets cultured from a patients hair follicles such as
Epidex (Modex Therapeutics)48.
A spray such as CellSpray (Clinical Cell Culture). Subconfluent
cells are expanded in the laboratory and made into a suspension in
which they are transported. They are then delivered to the patient
as a spray45.
Dermal replacement materials
Donor skin34: skin from screened skin donors can be used to
provide either a temporary wound cover or a permanent source of
allodermis.
Integra21 (Integra LifeSciences): an alternative to donor skin that
provides a vascularized dermis for a subsequent split-thickness
skin graft.
Alloderm (Lifecell): freeze-dried human donor dermis35.
Dermagraft (Advanced Biohealing): a synthetic material
conditioned with donor fibroblasts28.
Transcyte (Advanced Biohealing): similar to Dermagraft
but with a silicone membrane to act as a temporary epidermal
barrier29.
Permacol (Tissue Science Laboratories): porcine skin that
provides a temporary wound dressing36.
Epidermal/dermal replacement materials
Apligraf (Organogenesis): this combines allogeneic
keratinocytes and fibroblasts with bovine collagen to provide a
temporary skin-replacement material suitable for use in chronic
wounds but not major burns30.
Orcel (Ortec International): combines allogeneic keratinocytes
and fibroblasts with bovine collagen to provide a temporary skinreplacement material suitable for use in chronic wounds31.
Cincinnati skin substitute, or Permaderm (Cambrex):
comprises autologous keratinocytes and fibroblasts crafted into
reconstructed skin with bovine collagen. Can provide a permanent
skin substitute for burns patients37.
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to examine the deliberate upregulation or downregulation of adhesion

molecules on these melanomas, and study matrix metalloproteinases
and inflammation. Invasion (Fig. 4c) has been shown to be dependent
on the interaction of the tumour cells with the adjacent skin cells6668.

Pancytokeratin

Figure 3 | Reconstruction of tissue-engineered skin using a synthetic

scaffold. Shows reconstruction of 3D tissue-engineered skin for in vitro
purposes only using an electrospun polystyrene scaffold. The polystyrene
scaffold contained fibres of about 10 m thickness and had a packing
fraction of 0.1; it was produced by electrospinning. a, The presence of
skin cells (keratinocytes, fibroblasts and endothelial cells) cultured in the
scaffold for 10 days and revealed with an MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) viable stain. The area in which
the cells were seeded was 1 cm in diameter. b, A cross-section through
this scaffold which has been seeded with keratinocytes, fibroblasts and
endothelial cells in which keratinocytes have been specifically identified
by immunostaining with pancytokeratin. (Images reproduced, with
permission, from ref. 55.)

of keratinocyte expansion and organization can be demonstrated even

in a 3D electrospun polystyrene matrix that has none of the specialized
collagen structure of the natural dermis55 (Fig. 3).
Pigmentation
Excellent work on understanding the biology of both normal and vitiligo melanocytes in reconstructed skin has been published by the Taieb
laboratory62. The ability to do mix and match experiments led to findings that melanocytes in 3D culture spontaneously produce pigment
reflecting their donor phototype origin. This ability was not influenced
by the keratinocyte environment.
Following on from this, the LOreal group58 have developed a model
with melanocytes for investigating pigmentary responses to agents. Surprisingly, fibroblasts were found to have a substantial role in determining
whether spontaneous pigmentation occurs in reconstructed skin63. This
is illustrated in Fig. 4a, b. Figure 4a shows a section through skin, indicating the location of the melanocytes in the lower layer of the epidermis.
In Fig. 4b, however, the centre of the reconstructed skin discs was deliberately not seeded with melanocytes to provide contrast. In the presence of fibroblasts, repopulating reconstructed skin with melanocytes
taken from pale-skinned donors resulted in amelanotic skin (Fig. 4b,
left-hand model). Omission of the fibroblasts in the same experiments
led to spontaneous pigmentation63 (Fig. 4b, right-hand model). Recent
work64 in immune-tolerant mice grafted with reconstructed human skin
has confirmed that human fibroblasts also function to reduce melanocyte pigmentation in vivo. Thus, melanocyte behaviour is very different
in the presence and absence of fibroblasts a result that can be easily
seen with the appropriate combination of cells present in the 3D model
but that is difficult to see in 2D. The role of fibroblasts in reducing pigmentation was not obvious before the development of 3D models.
It has been noted that hypopigmentation is often a problem when
reconstructed skin is used for burns patients41. When collagen is used
as the dermal scaffold on which to reconstruct skin, the melanocytes
initially present in the tissue-engineered skin may be rapidly lost from
these reconstructs after grafting41. This can be duplicated experimentally
using reconstructed human skin that has been prepared with or without a basement membrane. In the absence of a basement membrane,
melanocytes fail to make a secure attachment and are rapidly lost63 (see
page 843).
Melanoma invasion
3D reconstructed models have provided insight into the interaction
between tumour cells and healthy skin cells. A number of research
groups such as that of Delvoye et al.65 are examining the cell interactions involved in early-stage melanoma invasion. Such models can be
used to look at the extent of invasion by different melanoma cell lines,
878

Skin contraction
Unexpected results have been obtained in relation to the contraction of
human skin grafts. The data from work using reconstructed skin from
sterilized mature crosslinked dermis (Fig. 4d) show that keratinocytes
rather than fibroblasts contract this dermis6971. Both keratinocytes72
and fibroblasts73 can contract dilute collagen gels, but the finding that
keratinocytes have a marked ability to contract human dermis sheds
new light on the problem of skin-graft contracture. This model is
being used to identify new pharmacological targets to block contraction. Recent evidence shows that inhibitors of the collagen crosslinking
enzyme lysyl oxidase can block contraction to a large degree without
having adverse effects on skin morphology71.
Other uses
Reconstructed skin has also been used to develop models of human
skin diseases such as psoriasis74 and the genetic disorder epidermolysis
bullosa a severe, often lethal blistering problem. Here it is being
used to develop therapeutic gene expression to improve keratinocyte

HBL melanoma
cells

Figure 4 | Examples of laboratory uses of tissue-engineered

skin. Reconstructed human skin based on de-epidermized acellular dermis
has various uses examples include the study of skin pigmentation,
melanoma invasion and skin graft contraction. a, For skin pigmentation
studies, melanocytes were added to reconstructed skin containing
keratinocytes and fibroblasts, cultured for 10 days and then sectioned and
stained with eosin and haematoxylin to show their general morphology.
Melanocytes are identified by immunostaining for S100, and are distributed
in the basal keratinocyte layer. In this study, keratinocytes have formed a
well-attached epithelium with finger-like projections into the dermis that
are known as rete ridges. b, Investigation of the contribution of fibroblasts
to skin pigmentation. The melanocytes used were obtained from a paleskinned donor and combined in a 5/95 melanocyte/keratinocyte ratio.
Fibroblasts were included in the left-hand model and omitted from the
right-hand model. The reconstructed skin models were cultured for 10
days, with two discs 8 mm in diameter removed after 5 days and replaced
with material lacking any additional melanocytes for comparison. As
can be seen, the omission of fibroblasts led to spontaneous pigmentation
in this reconstructed skin model63. c, To study melanoma invasion, the
human melanoma cell line (HBL) was added to reconstructed human
skin containing keratinocytes and fibroblasts, and a section through this
reconstructed skin was stained with eosin and haematoxylin for general
morphology. Melanoma cells were specifically identified by staining
with the HMB45 antibody using a red endpoint (arrows). Penetration of
melanoma cells through the epidermis into the dermis can be seen clearly66.
d, Demonstration of the use of this model to study skin graft contraction.
De-epidermized acellular human dermis, to which only keratinocytes had
been added, were cultured in an airliquid interface for 10 days. The ability
of keratinocytes to gather in the underlying dermis is evident6971.

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adhesion. At present, there is little to offer these patients unless gene

therapy and grafting of tissue-engineered skin can be achieved, and
this is now looking promising75.

Challenges for the future

Tissue engineering of skin is based on almost 25 years worth of published research and rests on a strong bedrock of cell biology and woundhealing knowledge. There is a relatively mature understanding of what
works well, what remains challenging and where to concentrate effort.
At a prosaic level there remains a major need to reduce the risks for
patients receiving cultured cells. For such patients, a reliable and regulatory-body-approved xenobiotic-free keratinocyte culture methodology is badly needed. Dermal substitute materials that present lower
risks for burns patients than bovine collagen or human donor dermis
are also needed. In terms of success after grafting, the main challenge
is to get cultured cells to attach securely often to very challenging
wound beds. Means of accelerating basement membrane formation and
vascularization are needed to help tissue-engineered skin survive after
grafting. After this, graft contraction, loss of pigmentation and scarring
at the margins may occur, as with conventional skin grafts. In vitro models of tissue-engineered skin are offering insight into how to prevent
contraction and loss of pigmentation. With respect to scar prevention,
a long-established programme of research76,77 on understanding the role
of the transforming growth factor- family in wound healing and scar
formation is now being developed into a therapy78.
The experience of the past 25 years has identified that in the production of tissue-engineered materials the focus must move more quickly
from laboratory to clinical use. Products must be user-friendly. Production costs must be contained so that reimbursement gives a sufficient
income. Commercial lessons have been hard won, but products have
successfully negotiated a rapidly changing regulatory environment. Safe
and clinically effective materials have been developed, and making these
commercially viable is now feasible. Despite initial unrealistic commercial and clinical expectations, tissue-engineered skin has delivered considerable benefits to patients with burns and chronic wounds and has
enormous potential that is only just beginning to be realized.

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Acknowledgements The author regrets that space restrictions preclude full

reference to all those who have contributed to this field. Sheila MacNeils research is
supported by grants from EPSRC, BBSRC and the Wellcome Trust.
Author Information Reprints and permissions information is available at
npg.nature.com/reprintsandpermissions. The author declares competing
financial interests: details accompany the paper at www.nature.com/nature.
Correspondence should be addressed to the author (s.macneil@shef.ac.uk).