I didn't expect to be able to walk on the ground in 20 days after applying the printed skin twice! "Said Xu, a wounded soldier in the army, looking at the healed foot wound with emotion. Recently, the team of Academician Fu Xiaobing from the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army successfully repaired the skin ulceration and necrosis caused by repeated treatment using 3D bioprinting functional skin. The relevant results have been published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
This breakthrough technology uses human umbilical cord derived mesenchymal stem cells as the core material, and constructs skin tissue containing complete epidermal and dermal structures through high-precision 3D printing equipment. During the treatment, the doctor will print the skin and apply it directly to the wound. After 3 days, healthy blood circulation will appear, and complete closure will be achieved within 20 days. Compared with traditional skin grafting, this technique not only avoids donor site damage, but also accurately matches wound morphology, reducing scar formation by over 50% in animal experiments.
What is even more remarkable is that the team's latest international first "breathing type" 3D printed skin has been put into military applications. It successfully induced stem cells to differentiate into sweat gland like cells by regulating the inducing factors in bioink, solving the problem of postoperative sweating in patients with extensive burns. No need for suturing, it can fuse with one's own skin in 3-7 days, "said Academician Fu Xiaobing. This technology has become an important guarantee for the treatment of war wounds.
Plant inspired biomimetic dressing solves the problem of infection
At the Children's Medical Center affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, the "rhizome biomimetic membrane" used for burn patients is demonstrating unique therapeutic effects. This dressing, jointly developed by Professor Zhu Shihui's team and Donghua University, is inspired by the water transport structure of plant roots and stems. It uses a five layer gradient aperture design to construct a one-way flow channel, which directs the discharge of wound exudate and completely solves the pain point of infection caused by traditional dressing reflux.
Liquid reflux is the 'invisible killer' of wound healing, which may increase the risk of infection by 40%, "explained Professor Zhu Shihui. This dressing is loaded with curcumin, which can slowly release and exert anti-inflammatory effects. In animal experiments, it shortened the healing time by nearly 5 days and made the epithelial thickness closer to normal tissue. At present, the degradable version is accelerating clinical trials and will cover multiple scenarios such as diabetes foot and pressure sore in the future.
Plasma technology for 'knife free debridement' to subdue infected wounds
The plasma radiofrequency technology developed by Director Yang Rungong's team at the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army provides a new solution for another clinical stubborn disease - infectious and difficult to heal wounds. Guo, a patient with diabetes foot, exposed the leg bone and spread pus due to postoperative infection. After many times of ineffective traditional debridement, this technology was used to remove infection and repair the wound.
Plasma is like a 'precision surgical knife', which can efficiently kill pathogenic bacteria without damaging healthy tissues, "said Director Yang Rungong. This technology uses minimally invasive methods to remove infected lesions while stimulating basal cell regeneration, and has been included in the department's" 18 core technologies ". The data shows that the healing rate of chronic wounds treated with this technology is increased by more than 30% compared to traditional methods.
Integrating medicine and engineering to build a new ecosystem for restoration
Behind these breakthroughs is the innovative model of "front store, back factory" support. The Department of Organizational Regeneration and Wound Repair at the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army is guided by clinical needs and collaborates with multiple institutions to achieve rapid transformation from basic research to clinical application. The collagen based artificial dermis developed by the team of Xiamen University and the phase adaptive hydrogel developed by Wenzhou Medical University are also accelerating their implementation.
"The incidence rate of chronic refractory wounds in China has reached 1.5%, and the proportion of diabetes foot exceeds 40%." Academician Fu Xiaobing pointed out that with the promotion of large-scale production of 3D printed skin and the clinical popularization of bionic dressing, the amputation risk of complex wounds in the future will be reduced from 15% to below 5%. The technological leap from the laboratory to the hospital bed is making "difficult to heal wounds that can be healed" a reality.