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Amniotic membrane as part of a skin substitute for full‐thickness wounds: An experimental evaluation in a porcine model
Author(s) -
Loeffelbein Denys J.,
Baumann Claudia,
Stoeckelhuber Mechthild,
Hasler Rafael,
Mücke Thomas,
Steinsträßer Lars,
Drecoll Enken,
Wolff KlausDietrich,
Kesting Marco R.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of biomedical materials research part b: applied biomaterials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.665
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1552-4981
pISSN - 1552-4973
DOI - 10.1002/jbm.b.32689
Subject(s) - medicine , amnion , skin biopsy , surgery , wound healing , biopsy , pathology , fetus , pregnancy , genetics , biology
Background: We evaluated the use of human amniotic membrane (HAM) as a graft material for the treatment of iatrogenic full‐thickness (FT) skin wounds in a porcine model with a view to reducing donor site morbidity in free flap transfer. Methods: Forty experimental FT‐wounds were covered with an autologous split‐thickness skin graft (STSG) alone or in combination with a mono‐ or multilayer HAM or Integra ® . Untreated wounds served as controls. Clinical evaluation and biopsy‐sampling for histological and immunohistochemical staining with von‐Willebrand‐factor (vWF) antibody, laminin antibody, Ki‐67 antibody, and smooth muscle actin (αSMA) antibody were performed on days 5, 7, 10, 20, 40, and 60 after surgical intervention. Results: Considerable disparities in the estimated criteria were observed between the various treatment groups of the FT‐wounds. The use of HAM was found to have an accelerating impact on re‐epithelialization. The multilayered amnion membrane showed better results than the Integra ® and monolayer technique in terms of contraction rate, inflammation, and scarring and seemed useful as a dermal substitute in FT‐wounds giving comparable results to STSG coverage alone. Conclusions: This study demonstrates the successful application of HAM as part of a skin substitute in FT‐wounds in minipigs. The results offer promise as a simple and effective technique for the application of multilayer HAM in iatrogenic human skin defects and the acceleration of wound healing. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 2012.