If you’ve ever wondered why even successful skin grafts can leave tight, uncomfortable scars, this new research from Linköping University will catch your eye.
Scientists have developed a patient-ready gel — nicknamed “skin in a syringe” — that can be gently applied or even 3D-printed directly onto a wound to help the body rebuild real dermis, not just a thin surface layer.
That’s a big deal: the dermis is the skin’s living foundation, with blood vessels, nerves, and elasticity. Traditional grafts often replace the top layer (epidermis) only, which is why scarring and stiffness are common.
The gel’s design and how it works with your body. Researchers seeded fibroblast cells, the workhorse cells of the dermis, onto tiny gelatin beads, then mixed them into a hyaluronic acid gel.
Using click chemistry, it all locks together into a material that turns liquid under light pressure (so it can be pushed through a syringe), then firms up once it’s in place. In mice, 3D-printed gel pucks survived, formed new blood vessels, and produced the molecular building blocks of healthy skin.
Imagine: a small biopsy of your own cells expanded and printed into a custom graft that encourages true healing with less scarring, all thanks to this innovative skin in a syringe approach.
There’s a second breakthrough, too. The team also created elastic hydrogel threads that can be shaped into miniature tubes, tiny channels that can carry fluid or host blood vessel cells. That could help solve a long-standing limit in lab-grown tissues: without blood vessel-like channels, cells in the center can starve.
Building these mini-pipes into grafts or organoids could make engineered tissues more robust and clinically useful, complementing the skin in a syringe technology.
For older adults, skin heals more slowly and scars can be more limiting, affecting mobility, comfort, and infection risk. A treatment that nudges the body to rebuild functional dermis, like this technology, could mean smoother recovery, better flexibility, and a more natural look and feel after injury or surgery.
It’s early days (animal studies so far), but the path to personalized, cell-based grafts that reduce scarring is coming into clearer focus.
“We see that the cells survive and it’s clear that they produce different substances that are needed to create new dermis. In addition, blood vessels are formed in the grafts,” says Johan Junker, Linköping University. “We find this material very promising.”
Curious about how “click chemistry,” gelatin beads, and hyaluronic acid come together — and what’s next for clinical trials for this innovation? Read the full story on ScienceDaily
