Abstract
Based on the observation that skin heals without a scar during embryonic development, we investigated the possibilities of using principles found in embryonic development to design novel constructs. Such constructs may induce embryonic-like processes, potentially, and result in scarless healing when used for the treatment of full-thickness skin wounds. A comparison between two time points during embryonic development (E14 and E16), and one postnatal time point (P1) against adult skin (P90), resulted in a list of 20 growth factors. Two growth factors were selected and were successfully incorporated into a type I collagen-heparin scaffold. In addition, we created type I collagen scaffolds containing hyaluronic acid, since hyaluronic acid is suggested to be important during embryonic wound healing. During embryonic development gradients of effector molecules are important. In the thesis we present briefly the development of a scaffold containing a gradient of heparin. Overall we have set the first steps in the construction of embryonic scaffolds for tissue engineering, focusing on glycosaminoglycans, effector molecules and collagen.
