Wound Healing and Scar Patterning After Addition of Autologous Skin Cell Suspension to Meshed Grafts.

J Surg Res

Firefighters' Burn and Surgical Research Laboratory, MedStar Health Research Institute, Washington, District of Columbia; Department of Biochemistry and Molecular & Cellular Biology, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia; Department of Surgery, Georgetown University School of Medicine, Washington, District of Columbia. Electronic address:

Published: October 2024

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study investigates the effectiveness of combining autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) with meshed split-thickness skin grafts (mSTSG) for treating large burns, aiming to improve healing times and reduce aesthetic issues.
  • Experiments conducted on pigs showed that wounds treated with ASCS had significantly faster re-epithelialization rates compared to those without ASCS, particularly noted on days 3, 5, and 7 post-grafting.
  • However, despite the improved healing rates, the presence of ASCS did not affect the patterning of the scars, indicating that while ASCS enhances healing, it may not address visual scarring issues.

Article Abstract

Introduction: A common treatment for large deep-to-full-thickness burns is excision and grafting with a widely meshed split-thickness skin graft (mSTSG). Due to the differential healing of the interstices and adhered split-thickness skin graft, wound patterning and delayed wound healing are common outcomes of this treatment. Delayed healing may increase infection rates and wound care requirements, while wound patterning may be psychologically and aesthetically consequential for patients. Autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) can be used to "over spray" a meshed autograft. It was hypothesized that the use of ASCS combined with mSTSG would increase the rate of wound healing and decrease patterning in healed burn wounds.

Methods: Full-thickness burns or excisional wounds (n = 8 each) were created in red Duroc pigs and received 4:1 mSTSGs after wound bed preparation. Half of the wounds received ASCS and half did not at the time of grafting. Percent re-epithelialization, patterning, rete ridge ratio, cellularity, dermal and epidermal thickness, immunofluorescent S100β staining, and melanin index were assessed for each scar.

Results: Wounds that received ASCS exhibited increased rates of re-epithelialization (burn +ACSC versus burn-ASCS; day 3 (53.9 ± 3.1 versus 34.3 ± 3.3, P = 0.009): day 5 (68.1 ± 1.6 versus 40.8 ± 3.2, P < 0.001)). Excision +ASCS versus excision-ASCS; day 7 (98.1 ± 1.2 versus 86.4 ± 2.0, day 7 P = 0.022) compared to wounds not treated with ASCS. There was no difference in rete ridge ratio, cellularity, dermal thickness, epidermal thickness, S100β staining, melanin index, or patterning was measured between wounds that received ASCS and those that did not.

Conclusions: The addition of ASCS to 4:1 mSTSGs leads to increased rate of wound healing but does not impact the degree of patterning in this model, suggesting that ASCS application likely robustly transfers keratinocytes but not functioning melanocytes at acute timepoints.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2024.08.006DOI Listing

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