"A major limitation of CEA sheets is thatthey require signals from the dermis in vivo to proliferate and to form functional skin upon grafting and cannot be used alone to treat deep burns ."
I believe what they are saying is that these cells grow much faster in the body than they do in in a bio -reactor, and that cultured epithelial autografts alone cannot treat deep wounds, Dr Greenwood is developing CEA not Human Skin Equivalent (HSE) like Monash are developing, which would get the skin stem cells into the body much faster and thus allow the growth of these skin cells in the body much faster as well.
They are also saying that the sheet method may not be ideal in a hospital situation. Cultured Epithelial Autografts (CEA) for treatment of burns.
CEA is the method that Dr Greenwood and his company are using and as they say it takes three weeks or thereabouts but what Monash have found is that the stem cells grow much faster in the body than they do in these cultured sheets
Adult keratinocytes have limited proliferative abilities in culture. Established techniques for CEA culture rely on murine fibroblasts as feeders and may not be ideal for clinical applications.
We are examining alternative methods to optimize keratinocyte proliferation in culture using defined factors.
We have developed techniques to create composite skin in the laboratory that has close to native skin morphology (6). Our goal is enabling surgeons to replace both dermal and epidermal layers of damaged skin with tissue engineered skin in a single procedure. We would speed up the wound healing and reduce the risk of infection.
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