Cell therapy for full-thickness wounds: are fetal dermal cells a potential source?

Area of Science:

• Regenerative Medicine
• Wound Healing Research
• Tissue Engineering

Background:

• Autologous dermal fibroblasts enhance burn wound healing but face limitations in cell source availability.
• Fetal dermal cells are explored as an alternative for cell-based skin regeneration therapies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the efficacy of fetal dermal cells (human and porcine) versus autologous dermal fibroblasts in a collagen-elastin substitute for skin regeneration.
• To evaluate the impact of these cell sources on wound healing, inflammation, and scar quality in a porcine model.

Main Methods:

• Human fetal fibroblasts (hFF), porcine fetal fibroblasts (pFF), or autologous fibroblasts (AF) were seeded onto a collagen-elastin substitute (Novomaix, NVM).
• The NVM constructs were applied with autologous split thickness skin grafts (STSG) in a porcine excisional wound model.
• Wound healing, inflammatory cell infiltration, alpha-smooth muscle actin (αSMA) expression, wound contraction, and scar quality were assessed.

Main Results:

• NVM+hFF increased inflammatory cell influx (neutrophils, macrophages, CD4+, CD8+ T cells) compared to STSG, acellular NVM (Acell-NVM), and NVM+AF.
• NVM+pFF showed increased CD8+ T cell influx.
• NVM+AF reduced αSMA expression and wound contraction compared to Acell-NVM.
• NVM+AF resulted in improved scar quality at day 56 compared to Acell-NVM, NVM+hFF, and NVM+pFF.

Conclusions:

• Autologous fibroblasts significantly improved wound healing outcomes and scar quality compared to fetal dermal cells and acellular matrices.
• Fetal dermal fibroblasts, particularly human fetal fibroblasts, did not enhance wound healing in this full-thickness porcine model and induced a notable inflammatory response.
• The findings support the use of autologous fibroblasts as a more effective cell source for skin regeneration therapies over fetal dermal cells in this model.