01147nas a2200193   4500000000100000000000100001008004100002260001200043653003500055653001200090653002200102100001900124245005800143856004800201300001200249490000800261520067000269022001400939       2007                            d  c2007-0210aHumanities and Social Sciences10aScience10amultidisciplinary1 aSheila MacNeil00aProgress and opportunities for tissue-engineered skin  uhttps://www.nature.com/articles/nature05664  a874-8800 v4453 aTissue-engineered skin is now a reality. For patients with extensive full-thickness burns, laboratory expansion of skin cells to achieve barrier function can make the difference between life and death, and it was this acute need that drove the initiation of tissue engineering in the 1980s. A much larger group of patients have ulcers resistant to conventional healing, and treatments using cultured skin cells have been devised to restart the wound-healing process. In the laboratory, the use of tissue-engineered skin provides insight into the behaviour of skin cells in healthy skin and in diseases such as vitiligo, melanoma, psoriasis and blistering disorders.  a1476-4687