Bioprinting of Skin Constructs for Wound Healing

In the 2018 review, He et al. explored the use of bioprinting technology for creating skin constructs to aid in wound healing. They discussed how bioprinting could be a promising alternative to autologous split-thickness skin grafts, especially for extensive burns and full-thickness skin wounds, by using expanded cells from a skin biopsy to overcome the limitation of donor skin availability. The review detailed the bioprinting process, including the collection and culturing of skin tissue, and the use of various bioprinting strategies and natural biomaterials to create customized skin constructs. Although the technology showed potential, with high cell survival rates in the bioprinting process (97% before and 94% after), challenges such as optimizing scaffold materials, creating a vascular network, and incorporating skin appendages remained. The authors concluded that bioprinting holds promise for future wound healing applications but requires further development to fully replicate native skin structure and function for clinical use.