Use of decellularized scaffolds combined with hyaluronic acid and basic fibroblast growth factor for skin tissue engineering.

Skin damage is one of the common clinical skin diseases, and the main cure is the use of skin graft, especially for large area of skin injury or deep-skin damage. However, skin graft demand is far greater than that currently available. In this study, xenogeneic decellularized scaffold was prepared with pig peritoneum by a series of biochemical treatments to retain normal three-dimensional tissue scaffold and remove cells and antigenic components from the tissue. Scaffold was combined with hyaluronic acid (HA) plus two different concentrations of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) and tested for its use for the repair of skin wounds. HA enhanced bFGF to adsorb to the decellularized scaffolds and slowed the release of bFGF from the scaffolds in vitro. A total of 20 rabbits were sacrificed on day 3, 6, 11, or 14 postsurgery. The wound healing rate and the thickness of dermis layer of each wound were determined for analyzing the wound repair. Statistical analysis was performed by the two-tailed Student's t-test. Wounds covered with scaffolds containing 1 μg/mL bFGF had higher wound healing rates of 47.24%, 74.69%, and 87.54%, respectively, for days 6, 11, and 14 postsurgery than scaffolds alone with wound healing rates of 28.17%, 50.31%, and 61.36% and vaseline oil gauze with wound healing rates of 24.84%, 42.75%, and 57.62%. Wounds covered with scaffolds containing 1 μg/mL bFGF showed more dermis regeneration than the other wounds and had dermis layer of 210.60, 374.40, and 774.20 μm, respectively, for days 6, 11, and 14 postsurgery compared with scaffolds alone with dermis layer of 116.60, 200.00, and 455.40 μm and vaseline oil gauze with dermis layer of 82.60, 186.20, and 384.40 μm. There was no significant difference in wound healing rates and thickness of dermis layer between wounds covered with scaffolds containing 1 and 3 μg/mL bFGF on days 3, 6, 11, and 14 postsurgery. The decellularized scaffolds combined with HA and bFGF can be further tested for skin tissue engineering.