Modern aspects of wound healing: An update

Wound healing is an area of cutaneous medicine in which there have been many recent advances. Interest has focused on the development of an in vitro reconstructed skin, although neither the commercially available products nor the products currently described in experimental studies are able to fully substitute for natural living skin. The substitution of the main component of each wound, the connective tissue matrix, is an advance. Once dermis is reconstructed, the covering of the wound surface with both in vitro expanded epidermis and autologous split-skin transplants is significantly easier and has an improved chance of success. Epidermal stem cells may facilitate functionality of the superficial part of such a system. New experimental and clinical trials are currently under way.