Abstract
Skin substitutes have been developed as adjunctive treatments for massive burns and chronic wounds. However, compared with native skin autograft, skin substitutes display increased susceptibility to microbial contamination. Wound infection increases the likelihood of amputation in patients with lower extremity chronic wounds and can lead to life-threatening complications in burn patients. Infections in these populations are currently treated with topical antimicrobial agents in addition to broad-spectrum oral or intravenous antibiotics, but this may facilitate development of resistant organisms. Skin replacements with innate resistance to infection could reduce or eliminate the requirement for exogenous antibiotics. Gene-encoded antimicrobial peptides have demonstrated activity against a variety of pathogens and expression of these peptides can be increased in skin cells using gene transfer. Theoretically, skin replacements engineered to overexpress antimicrobial peptides may represent a novel approach for treatment or prevention of wound infection.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.