Skin Grafts Research Paper

Skin is the largest organ in the human body. It is made up of three layers, the epidermis, dermis and the hypodermis. The epidermis is the outer layer of skin that keeps out harmful germs and bacteria but keeps in the vital fluids that humans need to survive. The dermis is the inner layer of skin that contains blood vessels, nerves, hair follicles, oil, and sweat glands Until the late twentieth century, skin grafts were constructed from the patient's own skin. Traditional ways of dealing with large losses of skin have been to use skin grafts from the patient or from a donor or a dead body. The problem with the first method is that a person may only have so much skin available depending on the size of the wound. The other methods suffer because
Ioannis V. Yannas and Dr. John F. Burke. Their objective was to discover a bandage/cover that would protect severe skin wounds from infection by accelerating wound closure. Several kinds of grafts made of synthetic and natural polymers were prepared and tested on a guinea pig. By the late 1970s they had still not reached the goal of their original objective. Instead, their experimental grafts did not have any effect on the speed of closure of wounds.
After studying histology (microscopic cells of tissues) samples revealed that grafts that delayed wound closure introduced the creation of new dermis at the burn site, instead of forming scar, which is the normal outcome. This was the first demonstration of regeneration of a tissue that does not regenerate by itself in an adult mammal. After the initial discovery, further research led to further evaluation of new grafts that were created the same way. These grafts were synthesized to become a copolymer of collagen and a glycosaminoglycan, chondroitin-6-sulfate. Control of the pore size, degradation rate and surface chemistry of the collagen scaffold were found to be critical traits for its biological