Culturing Cells
Over the last 40 years, the management of burns has progressed dramatically. In the 1960’s the survival of a patient with a burn that covered 40% of his body was described by surgeons as “spectacular”, whilst in 2003 patients with burns that cover most of the body can live.
Despite advances that have resulted in the improved survival rates of patients who have had burns, patients are all-to-often left with significant scars that affect the way they live and the way they feel about themselves. Patients must frequently undergo multiple operations to improve the functionality and appearance of scars.
Scientists and clinicians have sought technologies that can result in improved healing for many years. Early solutions to wound coverage included the use of synthetic materials, skin from other animals (xenografts) and skin from donor patients (allografts). Although useful as a temporary dressing, these types of grafts were quickly rejected by the body.
Several years later, clinicians began routinely removing large sheets of skin from the patient and transplanting them onto the affected areas to provide an immediate cover. The skin tended to grow well and was not rejected by the body. The sheets were difficult to harvest in patients with large burns however and the creation of a second wound increased infection rates and the formation of additional scars in many patients.
In 1975, experimental techniques showed skin cells (biopsy) could be taken from a patient and grown in the laboratory as thin sheets (cultured epithelial autografts) before being replanted to the injured parts. The cells were not rejected by the body as they were essentially from the patient themselves. This process rapidly gained acceptance as a benchmark treatment within the burns community for severe burns.
Despite the acceptance of this technology, several issues with cultured epithelial autograft (CEA) sheets have limited their use. These include:
- The sheets tend to be extremely thin (3 to 5 cell layers thick) and are difficult to apply to wounds, especially in high shear and contour areas.
- The sheets do not take well in some cases as the cells were mature when applied and do not move and repopulate as well as immature cells.
- The sheets usually take around three weeks to culture and are as a result are applied as scar tissue is forming.
- The sheets are expensive to produce as the are time consuming and difficult to handle in the laboratory.
- Extended hospital stay and costs resulting from increased culture times.
C3 scientists have developed CEA in a suspension form:
- The suspension can be made available from day five of culture, ensuring they are applied before scar tissue forms and patients can be discharged from hospital as soon as possible.
- The suspension is easily applied to wound beds as it is simply sprayed on.
- The suspension is grown from a split-thickness biopsy a fraction the size of traditional skin grafts.
- The suspension can be grown from a small biopsy near the wound, resulting in new skin that has the same colour, look and function as the original skin area.
- Extensively tested. C3 has cultured skin biopsies from more patients than any other tissue engineering laboratory.
