Automated tissue engineering could revolutionise skin testing
Scientists at the Frauhofer Institute in Munich say they have been working to develop ways to engineer skin samples for testing that builds on existing technology, which is difficult to use and very time consuming.
Current demand within the EU alone is equal to approximately 6.5 million units a year, a figure that is almost impossible to meet using the currently available technologies, with no one provider able to produce more than 2,000 units per month.
Bearing this in mind, the aim of the research at the Institute was to develop a faster and easier way to replicate skin cells, specifically by going beyond the conventional single-layer skin models.
Reproducing different skin layers
“Thanks to developments at our institute, the project team has access to a patent-protected skin model that consists of two layers with different cell types,” said Prof. Heike Mertsching, lead scientist for the project.
“This gives us an almost perfect copy of human skin, and one that provides more information than any system currently available on the market.”
In an attempt at bringing the technology to market, the team of scientists is currently working on the first fully automatic production system for this type of two-layer skin model.
The reproduction technique developed by the institute is a multi-stage process, which starts off with the sterilization of small pieces of skin, which are then cut into smaller pieces, modified with enzymes and insolated in two cell fractions that are propagated in separate cultures.
The addition of collagen
The next stage sees the development of two different types of skin cells to replicate the different functions of skin layers.
This is done by adding collagen to one of the samples in an effort to replicate the more flexible lower skin layer, known as the dermis.
The scientists say that in a humid incubator kept at body temperature it then takes less than three weeks to grow the cultures together to form a two-layered finished skin model with a diameter of roughly 1cm.
Although this system has been replicated in research before, the big step that the German scientists have been able to take is to produce an efficient system of mass production, which cuts out the need for excessive and time-consuming manual work.
Currently, scientists from four separate divisions of the Fraunhofer Institute are working to further develop the production method, and although they say they still have a lot of work ahead of them, the ‘skin factory’ is expected to be finished in two years.
“Our goal is a monthly production of 5,000 skin models with perfect quality, and a unit price under €34 – levels that are attractive to the industry,” said Jorg Saxler, another lead scientist on the project.
