Background: The aim of this study was to generate skin tissue using adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells.
Methods: Thirty Wistar albino rats were used. A 2-cm-diameter full-thickness skin defect on the back of each rat was formed. A secondary wound healing model was constituted in group 1, fibrin matrix only was applied in group 2, a keratinocyte-coated fibrin matrix was applied in group 3, an adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell-seeded fibrin matrix was applied in group 4, and a keratinocyte-coated and adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell-seeded fibrin matrix was applied to the defects in group 5.
Results: A similar form of wound healing, with contraction from the edges and ulceration at the center, was observed in groups 1, 2, and 3. The wound contraction was reduced in group 4, and the epidermis was creeping from the surrounding tissue but with some ulcerations in the central part of the wounds. In group 5, the defect area was almost totally epithelialized, with minimal wound contraction. By microscopic analysis, significant increases in the collagen volume ratios and vascular volume ratios were determined in groups 4 and 5. From the fluorescent micrographs, fibroblastic differentiation and extracellular matrix synthesis, endothelial differentiation of stem cells, and neoangiogenesis and epithelium derived from marked keratinocytes were observed in group 5.
Conclusion: Formation of the adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell-seeded and keratinocyte-coated autologous fibrin scaffold leads to significant skin replacement.