Tissue Engineering in Skin Flashcards
(59 cards)
What is the role of skin?
- Barrier between the internal and external environment: provides protection against physical, chemical and biologic agents
- Plays an important role in thermoregulation
- Small degree of self-regeneration (not for deep injuries and burns)
What is the composition of skin?
1) epidermis
2) dermis
3) subcutaneous layer
What is the epidermis?
- made of closely packed epithelial cells (4 or 5 layers)
- no blood vessels (avascular)
What is the dermis?
dense and irregular connective tissue that houses blood vessels, hair follicles and sweat glands
What is the hypodermis?
composed mainly of loose connective and fatty tissues
What are the different layers that make up the epidermis?
stratum basale
stratum spinosum
stratum granulosum
stratum corneum
What is the name of the cells in all the layers of epidermis (exp stratum basale)?
keratinocytes
What is the role of keratinocytes?
“manufacture” and store keratin
= intracellular fibrous protein that gives hair, nails, and skin their hardness and water-resistant properties.
What are cells in the stratum basale known as?
stem cells
What happens to keratinocytes in the stratum corneum?
they are dead and regularly slough away, being replaced by cells from the deeper layers
What is the dermis?
contains blood and lymph vessels, nerves, and other structures, such as hair follicles and sweat glands Made of two layers of connective tissue that compose an interconnected mesh of elastin and collagenous fibers, produced by fibroblasts
What are the two layers of connective tissue in the dermis?
1) papillary layer
2) reticular layer
What is the papillary layer?
loose mesh collagen/elastin fibres
• Fibroblasts, small number of fat cells (adipocytes), phagocytes (fight bacteria or other infections)
• Abundance of small blood vessels
What is the reticular layer?
dense, irregular tight meshwork of collagen and elastin fibres
• Well-vascularized
• Rich nerve supply
What are the skin problems related to loss of barrier?
- Extensive full thickness skin loss-burns
- Chronic non-healing ulcers
- Minor cuts and abrasions
- Genetic blistering diseases
What are examples of inflammatory skin diseases?
- Eczema
- Acne
- Dermatitis-including contact dermatitis
What are skin problems related to melanocytes?
- Vitiligo
* Melanoma
What are the skin problems related to keratinocytes?
• Carcinoma-basal cell and squamous
What are the skin problems related to hair?
- Hair loss
* Hair greying
What are the tissue engineered skin applications?
- Burns
- Chronic wounds
- Reconstructive surgery-using TE skin
- Synthetic scaffolds for tissue engineering
- New Approaches: Artificial Stem Cell Microenvironments
What is a burn?
Damage to the skin or other body parts caused by extreme heat, flame, contact with heated objects, or chemicals
What is a first degree burn?
Superficial Causes local inflammation of the skin (e.g: sunburns)
What is a second degree burn?
Deeper Pain/redness/mild amount of swelling+ Blistering of the skin
What is a third degree burn?
Even deeper (involving all layers of the skin) Nerves and blood vessels are damaged White and leathery and tend to be relatively painless