ALLOGENEIC-SYNGENEIC CULTURED EPITHELIA - A SUCCESSFUL THERAPEUTIC OPTION FOR SKIN REGENERATION

Organ transplantation has progressed rapidly during the last decades, Furthermore, tissue engineering has and will continue to enlarge the s cope of organ grafting, Thus, severe skin wounds, as observed in large burn trauma patients, can now be permanently treated with cultured au tologous epithelial sheets, However, the time required for autologous cell growth is a major limitation, We propose to alleviate this pitfal l through a novel chimeric (allogeneic-syngeneic) epithelial cell cult ure technique, These chimeric epidermal grafts implanted in an animal model have been shown to allow the reappearance of a histologically no rmal epidermal coverage similar to simultaneously performed isografts, The regenerated epidermis contained only syngeneic keratinocytes. Thu s, allogeneic cells were eliminated passively, This new culture techno logy could find multiple applications, notably in various skin disease therapies.