A third-degree skin burn extends through the entire epidermis, dermis and hypodermis, but leaves the underlying muscle and bone tissue in a functional state.
Skin is made up of three layers: the epidermis, dermis and hypodermis.
The epidermis is ectodermal in origin. It is relatively void of ECM except for the basal membrane and has a distinctive keratinized layer produced by keratinocytes. Other artifacts of the epidermis include melanocytes, hair follicles, sebaceous glands, and sweat glands; embryonic stem cells and earlier progenitor cells can be used to regenerate hair follicles and sweat glands .
The dermis is of mesodermal origin and is has an extensive extracellular matrix for mechanical integrity. The dermis primarily consists …show more content…
MSCs can also be isolated from the patient’s bone marrow; however, with the multiple fractures and burns from the blast, much of the bone marrow may no longer be viable for use. Bone marrow would be ideal, because it not only differentiates to repair the wound but it does so at an accelerated rate . Because the patient is a soldier in his twenties, it can be assumed that prior to the incident, he was relatively healthy and fit, leaving a sufficient supply of stem cells for isolation; however, if necessary allogenic MCSs can also be used as long as they are not differentiated. These allogenic MCSs are immunoprivileged and immunosuppressive and will not result in an immune rejection therefore allowing them to be used to supplement the autologous …show more content…
This process entails transfecting the stem cell with DNA that codes for Lef-1/Tcf Wnt transcription factors that will work with added beta-catenin, c-Myc, Tap63 and GATA-3. This method can pose problems in vivo, because the recombinant DNA can result in uncontrolled growth; however, reversing the DNA back to is prior state is cannot be done in so many daughter cells.
Instead, for in vivo use, human epidermal cells are proliferated in contact with fibroblasts. They can be cultured adjacent to a layer of fibroblasts isolated from the patient but they are best cultured in vitro on a layer of 3T3 cell line fibroblasts. The 3T3 fibroblasts are a line of immortalized fibroblasts that can secrete the necessary growth factors for keratinocyte proliferation , . Hydrocortisone (0.4 ug/ml) is also added to culture media after the primary culture to make cell growth more ordered morphology, allowing the isolation of the keratinocyte layer void of fibroblasts . The combination of extracellular matrix components like collagen or de-cellularized scaffold is more common in practice and leads to better prognoses; however, the sole use of cells is