THE FUTURE OF BIO-PRINTING SKIN: PRE-CLINICAL AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF 3D PRINTING SKIN IN-SITU joanneke.maitz@sydney.edu.au

231-03

THE FUTURE OF BIO-PRINTING SKIN: PRE-CLINICAL AND CLINICAL OUTCOMES OF 3D PRINTING SKIN IN-SITU

2

Australia

Oral only

Skin tissue engineered solutions have been adopted into clinical practice to treat all types of wounds ranging from burn injuries to chronic wounds. However, many current cell-based systems have limitations including cellular run-off and complex culturing methods. Due to these limitations, cells and their delivery systems are often adjunct treatment modalities in the management of burns. The use of highly advanced delivery systems to build constructs that represent the native human skin are at the forefront of research and in these studies we evaluate the use of a robotic 3D bio-printer in-situ to promote tissue regeneration and repair.

LIGO, a surgical robot capable of 3D bio-printing, can produce a cell-based construct directly on a wound, reconstructing the skin in layers in-situ. We assessed the safety and delivery of different autologous cell types derived from split thickness skin grafts on wounds generated in a porcine model and in a clinical trial.

The results demonstrated an increase in re-epithelisation rate of 3D printed skin compared to healing by secondary intention in the porcine model. The outcomes from this study have enabled the translation to a first in human clinical trial; a safety study to deliver keratinocytes within a biomaterial matrix to a surgically generated wound with promising preliminary findings.

The results from this pre-clinical and clinical study demonstrated its safety and efficacy in treating controlled and non-complicated wounds. The use of this delivery system in tissue regeneration is a promising step in the advances for skin tissue engineering.