Combining tissue engineering with organ-on-a- chip technology to produce advanced skin models

"Human skin represents an important endpoint to access the efficacy and toxicity of cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. In the last few years, there has been an increasing demand for the development and production of in vitro skin models for basic and applied research which led to important advancements in the field of skin tissue engineering. However, current in vitro skin models still do not recapitulate the complex architecture and physiology of the in vivo human skin. The main limitations of the models produced with conventional methods are the use of exogenous animal-derived hydrogels, high contractability, lack of physiologically relevant mechanical forces and perfusion. This results in low mechanical stability and in a significantly weaker skin barrier compared to the native skin. Consequently, there remains a dependence on animal models during preclinical drug trials which results in expensive drug development, high failure rates and ethical issues. (...)