Helping Artificial Skin Fight Infection

Researchers at the University of Cincinnati (UC, OH, USA) carried out a laboratory study in which they created genetically altered surface skin cells (keratinocytes) from donated tissue samples, giving them enhanced infection-fighting abilities. These cells were then infected with the bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa, commonly found in hospitals, and allowed to incubate. Later analysis revealed that the genetically altered cells--modified to produce higher levels of a protein known as human beta defensin 4 (HBD4)--were more resistant to microbial infections than the unaltered cells.

According to the researchers, defensins could become an effective alternative method for burn wound care and infection control, decreasing a patient's risk for infection, improving skin graft survival, and reducing dependence on topical antibiotics. The findings were published in the January 2007 issue of the Journal of Burn Care and Research.

"If we can add these genetically modified cells to bioengineered skin substitutes, it would provide an important defense system boost during the initial grafting period, when the skin is most susceptible to infection,” said lead author Dorothy Supp, Ph.D., an adjunct research associate professor at UC, and a researcher at Cincinnati Shriners Hospital for Children (OH, USA).

Currently, cultured skin substitutes for burn wound care are grown in a laboratory using cells from a burn patient's own skin and combined with a spongy layer of collagen to make skin grafts that are reattached to the burn wound. However, since cultured skin grafts are not connected to the circulatory system at the time of grafting, they are not immediately exposed to circulating antibiotic drugs or to antibodies from the body's own immune syste, needed to fight off infection.



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