Bioengineered Skin Intended as In Vitro Model for Pharmacosmetics, Skin Disease Study and Environmental Skin Impact Analysis

Abstract

This review aims to be an update of Bioengineered Artificial Skin Substitutes (BASS) applications. At the first moment, they were created as an attempt to replace native skin grafts transplantation. Nowadays, these in vitro models have been increasing and widening their application areas, becoming important tools for research. This study is focus on the ability to design in vitro BASS which have been demonstrated to be appropriate to develop new products in the cosmetic and pharmacology industry. Allowing to go deeper into the skin disease research, and to analyze the effects provoked by environmental stressful agents. The importance of BASS to replace animal experimentation is also highlighted. Furthermore, the BASS validation parameters approved by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) are also analyzed. This report presents an overview of the skin models applicable to skin research along with their design methods. Finally, the potential and limitations of the currently available BASS to supply the demands for disease modeling and pharmaceutical screening are discussed.

Keywords: animal experimentation; atopic dermatitis; bioengineered artificial skin substitutes; fibroblasts; keratinocytes; product testing; psoriasis; regenerative medicine; tissue engineering; transepidermal water loss.

Figure 1

Diagram of the different applications of BASS: clinical applications, modeling physiological and pathological process and drugs discovery. Created with BioRender.com.

Figure 2

Diagram of the applications of BASS in research: pharmacosmetic development, environmental impacts and skin disease models. Created with BioRender.com.