[Keratinocyte transplantation and tissue engineering. New approaches in treatment of chronic wounds]

Cultured keratinocytes have been used for the treatment of extensive burns since disease lethality is reduced. Consequently, the treatment of chronic wounds with keratinocytes may be promising. Cell culture technology allows to expand keratinocytes up to 6000-fold in vitro after taking a single biopsy from patient. Today the transplantation of these in vitro cultured keratinocytes in different modifications is an established clinical treatment regimen for therapy of extensive wounds. For example, keratinocyte-fibrin-glue-suspensions, mainly consisting of proliferative epidermal basal cells, were used for the treatment of burns in experimental and clinical settings to bypass the disadvantages of conventional sheet grafts. Other approaches in tissue engineering for wound healing aim at the (epi-)dermal repair by the combination of allodermis and biomaterials, i.e. collagen-sponges and microspheres. Due to most recent efforts in keratinocyte culture techniques, developments in tissue engineering, research for novel biomaterials and gene therapy, therapy of chronic wounds may prove to be more efficient. Furthermore, from the socio-economical point of view, overall costs for treatment of chronic wounds could be reduced.