A bioengineered alternative to wound healing

In Australia, around 60,000 people undergo skin flap harvesting surgery to treat difficult-to-heal wounds.

The most common way to treat a serious wound such as those caused by severe trauma, cancer resection or diabetes is to harvest thick skin flaps of a patient’s skin from other sites. This surgery is said to be complex and costly, involving frequent complications. It also creates a second wound on the patient and often leads to long hospital stays, and difficult rehabilitation.

St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research Associate Professor Geraldine Mitchell is developing an alternative to skin flaps using bioengineered skin and incorporated blood vessels.

The research aims to offer a bioengineered alternative using a patient’s own cells which are grown to form a skin flap with blood vessels in the lab, rather than harvesting a flap directly from a patient.

“Skin flap harvest and transfer does create the right conditions for wound healing; however, the process itself has an entire set of its own problems and complications, especially as it creates what is essentially a new wound where there previously was none,” Mitchell said.

“The current techniques require complex, costly surgery, and this research potentially provides a far less invasive alternative.”

The project has received $710,793 from the Medical Research Future Fund.

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