Biological skin substitutes for full-thickness wound healing

Acute skin injuries such as burn and chemical wounds spontaneously heal within 3-4 weeks. Chronic wounds such as diabetes, bedsores and others fail to heal within first 12 weeks. Delay in healing of chronic wounds may cause severe damage in underlying layers such as cartilage, bone and muscles, resulting and tissue loss. It is well documented that severe acute wounds with more than 7 mm in diameter and chronic wounds require additional skin grafting to heal. To date, several skin substitutes are developed and commercialized. Nevertheless, successful and complete restoration of sever skin injuries still remains a major concern. Here, we review our recently published studies on development of novel biological skin substitutes and their possible applications in skin tissue engineering.