MS Thesis Defense: Jewelia Durant

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Meeting ID: 778 572 3757

"A Pigment-Inclusive, Bilayered, Tissue-Engineered Skin Substitute as a Model for Autologous Skin Grafting"

Abstract

Current standard-of-care for large skin defects involves autologous grafting of skin from another site on the patient’s body. This then leaves the patient with multiple sites of surgery and, while this method achieves closure and restores barrier function, scar tissue formation can result in contracture along with loss of appropriate morphology and appearance. This may result in patient disfigurement secondary to poor restoration of native color, texture, and mechanical properties of the newly “healed” skin at both the donor and recipient graft sites.

Tissue engineered skin substitutes (TESSs) have been explored as an alternative to skin grafting, providing a method to augment wound healing and minimize scarring. Various cell-free and cellularized TESSs have been studied in the literature; however, none have utilized a composite, bilayered electrospun/hydrogel construct with patient-specific cells to achieve accurate pigmentation that is consistent with native patient tissue. 

The research described in this thesis works toward addressing this clinical need.  Here we present:

1. Characterization and biocompatibility assessment of a bilayered construct
2. Isolation of patient-derived melanocytes, keratinocytes, and fibroblasts
3. Construction of an preliminary cell-seeded, bilayered TESS model that demonstrates proof-of-concept for a pigmented, patient-derived TESS

Ongoing work is directed towards utilizing this model to seed patient-derived epidermal (keratinocytes and melanocytes) and dermal (fibroblasts) cells within the bilayered construct to recapitulate the patient’s native pigmentation and texture, providing an alternative to tissue grafting.

Thesis Committee

• Katherine Hixon (Chair)
• Jonathan Thomas Elliott
• Matthew LeBoeuf, MD

Contact

For more information, contact Thayer Registrar at thayer.registrar@dartmouth.edu.