A Novel Three-Dimensional Skin Disease Model to Assess Macrophage Function in Diabetes.

A major challenge in the management of patients suffering from diabetes is the risk of developing nonhealing foot ulcers. Most methods to screen drugs for wound healing therapies rely on conventional 2D cell cultures that do not closely mimic the complexity of the diabetic wound environment. In addition, while three-dimensional (3D) skin tissue models of human skin exist, they have not previously been adapted to incorporate patient-derived macrophages to model inflammation from these wounds.