Nanomaterials and nanotechnology for skin tissue engineering.

A recent literature review of the field shows that tissue-engineered skin has been in clinical use for the last several decades and that, over this time the technology has advanced rapidly. Despite this progress no synthetic skin yet produced has completely replicated normal, healthy skin. Therefore, researchers must continue to develop materials that successfully overcome the problems with current skin tissue substitutes. This paper is a comprehensive review of the prospects for nanotechnology and nanomaterials to close this gap by mimicking surface properties for reconstruction of a variety of skin tissues. In addition, a number of commercially available products that regenerate different layers of the burn-damaged or chronically wounded skin are reviewed.