Emeritus Prof Richard Haverkamp, Karla Wolmarans, Andrea Matinong and Olivia Buwalda (Massey University)
Engineered tissue scaffolds are often needed to aid wound healing and for skin reconstruction. Surgical scaffolds act as a guide to cell adhesion and growth to form functional and structural skin tissue.
Full-thickness skin loss requires 75 million surgical procedures annually in the United States alone, which drives the demand for novel dermal scaffold materials. One of the major challenges is the limited selection of materials available for such surgical applications.
Surgical scaffolds can be made from collagen-based matrices, a variety of other natural polymers (e.g., chitosan, cellulose, fibrin), or synthetic polymers. Collagen matrix scaffolds are produced from decellularised tissue, either allografts or heterografts, or are reconstructed from collagen in suspension or solution.
The integration of the collagen scaffold into the body is slow and complex. Acellular matrices that have been meshed could allow cells to populate matrixes more rapidly, promoting better integration compared with solid sheets.
The team used the new Micro-computed Tomography (MCT) beamline to investigate the structure of collagen matrices from a commercial acellular dermal matrix, from arterial collagen matrices under development, and from tendon matrices – all heterograft materials.
This research contributed to development of a remarkable new technology for artery heterografts developed from New Zealand animal sources, which is in the process of being patent protected.
Related research:
Matinong A, Pickering Kim, Waterland M, Chisti Y and Haverkamp R. 2024. Gelatin and collagen from sheepskin. Polymers. 16. 1563. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym16111563
Matinong AME, Chisti Y, Pickering KL and Haverkamp RG. 2022. Collagen extraction from animal skin. Biology 11(6): 905. https://www.mdpi.com/2079-7737/11/6/905
Wells H, Sizeland K, Kirby N and Haverkamp R. 2022. Structure and strength of bovine and equine amniotic membrane. Biology. 11. 1096. https://doi.org/10.3390/biology11081096
