We now have the capability to produce materials on which human skin cells can thrive to be used as grafts to treat wounds. One might be hard-pressed to find a more interdisciplinary engineering exercise. Two companies, and soon more, are advancing the field. Skin is the largest single organ in the body, with a surface area ranging from 17 to 20 square feet in adults. Skin houses the nerves that receive stimuli of touch, pressure, heat, cold, and pain, and relay them to central nervous system.
Skin accommodates vitamin D synthesis, which is essential for normal bone and tooth structure.
Skin cells, in all their forms, know very well how to regenerate and repair themselves in many instances. About 5,000 people a year die from burn wounds, according to the American Burn Association. A common health threat for diabetics is ulcers on the soles of their feet that do not heal, a condition that can become severe enough to require amputation. A replacement that could offer an alternative treatment must mimic a thick complex of skin called stratum lucidum, found only on the palms and soles. Advanced Tissue Sciences reports that some 800,000 diabetics per year develop these ulcers.