Development of bioengineered granulation tissue substitutes for enhanced skin regeneration

There is a need for new treatments that promote the healing of chronic wounds, which are associated with high costs to the Canadian healthcare system and high mortality rates as current treatments are frequently inefficacious. To address this need, this thesis focused on the development of a “cell-assembled” bioscaffolding technology platform that incorporates pro-regenerative adipose-derived stromal cells (ASCs) dispersed throughout a cell-supportive extracellular matrix derived from decellularized adipose tissue (DAT). To advance towards pre-clinical testing in an impaired wound healing model in genetically-diabetic db/db mice, scaffolds generated with mouse ASCs sourced from C57BL/6 versus db/db mice were compared. Stable scaffolds were generated with both sources, and scaffold contraction, biochemical composition, cell viability, and levels of secreted VEGF-A, HGF and IL-6 were similar between the groups. Next, the cell-assembly methods were successfully adapted using porcine ASCs to generate scaled up scaffolds sized for future testing in a porcine wound healing model.