Combined use of a collagen-based dermal substitute and a fibrin-based cultured epithelium: a step toward a total skin replacement for acute wounds

Integra®, a dermal replacement, is used as an immediate and temporary coverage for acute wounds, after which, autograft is used to reconstitute permanently the epidermal coverage. The fibrin sheet-cultured epithelium autograft (FS-CEA) could provide an effective alternative to the surgical procedure. To evaluate this hypothesis, we compared the association of Integra®/FS-CE to Integra®/control-cultured epithelium (control-CE). Their respective abilities: (1) to produce dermal–epidermal construct in vitro; (2) to generate skin replacement when grafted onto athymic mice were studied. We have shown that: (1) 83% of the FS-CE attached to the artificial dermis in vitro compared to only 33% for control-CE; (2) retraction of the grafted area was significantly lower 2 weeks after grafted with FS-CE than with the control-CE (P< 0.05); (3) 83% of the mice grafted with FS-CE showed the presence of a differentiated human epidermis 21 days after grafting, while such an epidermis was absent in all the animals of the control-CE group. We found that the use of FS-CE greatly improved adhesion, development of the epithelium and graft take onto the artificial dermis. We believe this technology should significantly improve the performance of dermal–epidermal skin replacement for acute wounds.