Skin printing and auto-grafting

• US 9,545,302 B2
• Filed: 11/20/2013
• Issued: 01/17/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Dermagenesis, LLC
• Original Assignee: Dermagenesis, LLC
• Inventors: Tumey, David, Berriman, Sandra
• Primary Examiner(s): EPPS -SMITH, JANET L
• Application Number:
  US14/084,896
• Publication Number:
  US 20150139960A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,154 Days
• Field of Search: 424/93.7, 424/400, 424/423, 623/11.11, 623/15.12, 623/23.75
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2/105 Skin implants, e.g. artificial skin
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2210/0004 bioabsorbable
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2230/0017 Angular shapes
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2230/0063 Three-dimensional shapes
• CPC Class Codes: A61F 2240/002 Designing or making customized prostheses
• CPC Class Codes: A61K 35/36 Skin; Hair; Nails; Sebaceous glands; Cerumen; Epidermis; Epithelial cells; Keratinocytes; Langerhans cells; Ectodermal cells islets of Langerhans A61K35/39
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/412 Tissue-regenerating or healing or proliferative agents
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/414 Growth factors
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2300/64 Animal cells
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 2430/34 for soft tissue reconstruction
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/227 Other specific proteins or polypeptides not covered by A61L27/222, A61L27/225 or A61L27/24
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/24 Collagen
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/26 Mixtures of macromolecular compounds
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/3604 characterised by the human or animal origin of the biological material, e.g. hair, fascia, fish scales, silk, shellac, pericardium, pleura, renal tissue, amniotic membrane, parenchymal tissue, fetal tissue, muscle tissue, fat tissue, enamel
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/362 Skin, e.g. dermal papillae
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/3691 characterised by physical conditions of the treatment, e.g. applying a compressive force to the composition, pressure cycles, ultrasonic/sonication or microwave treatment, lyophilisation
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/3813 Epithelial cells, e.g. keratinocytes, urothelial cells
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/3886 comprising two or more cell types
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/3895 using specific culture conditions, e.g. stimulating differentiation of stem cells, pulsatile flow conditions
• CPC Class Codes: A61L 27/60 Materials for use in artificial skin
• CPC Class Codes: B29C 64/106 : using only liquids or viscous materials, e.g. depositing a continuous bead of viscous material
• CPC Class Codes: B29K 2089/00 : Use of proteins, e.g. casein, gelatine or derivatives thereof, as moulding material
• CPC Class Codes: B29L 2031/7532 : Artificial members, protheses
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 10/00 : Processes of additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 30/00 : Apparatus for additive manufacturing; Details thereof or accessories therefor
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 50/00 : Data acquisition or data processing for additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 50/02 : for controlling or regulating additive manufacturing processes
• CPC Class Codes: B33Y 80/00 : Products made by additive manufacturing
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 21/08 : for producing artificial tissue or for ex-vivo cultivation of tissue prostheses A61F2/00, grafts A61L27/00
• CPC Class Codes: C12M 41/48 : Automatic or computerized control automatic analysis G01N35/00
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 2502/094 : keratinocytes
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 2502/13 : connective tissue cells; generic mesenchyme cells, e.g. so-called "embryonic fibroblasts"
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 2513/00 : 3D culture
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 2533/54 : Collagen; Gelatin
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 5/0625 : Epidermal cells, skin cells; Cells of the oral mucosa
• CPC Class Codes: C12N 5/0698 : Skin equivalents

Abstract

An apparatus and method for the production of substitute skin that advantageously reduces the amount of donor dermal cells needed from non-wound areas of a patient having a wound to be auto-grafted is reduced by using all of the harvested skin cells. A 3D printer is used to construct a wound graft product from the harvested skin cells without wasting any of the harvested skin cells. In a case of an irregularly shaped wound, wastage of harvested skin associated with trimming is avoided.

Claims

1. A computerized skin printing system comprising;

a quantity of living donor skin cells harvested from a non-wound area of a patient having a to-be-treated wound or tissue defect;

a three-dimensional printer that processes the quantity of living donor skin cells, wherein the three-dimensional printer is under control of a controller connected to the three-dimensional printer;

an imaging device;

a sizing grid projected onto the wound or tissue defect while the imaging device is being operated;

a computer that performs steps of receiving a set of images taken by the imaging device of the wound or tissue defect of the patient and processing the imaged wound or tissue defect into a set of skin-printing instructions that are provided to the controller connected to the three-dimensional printer, and operating the three-dimensional printer to construct a customized skin graft product useable to be auto-grafted onto the wound or tissue defect of the patient.

2. The skin printing system of claim 1, further comprising at least one syringe pump under control of the controller.

3. The skin printing system of claim 2, wherein the at least one syringe pump contains the quantity of living donor skin cells harvested from the non-wound area.

4. The skin printing system of claim 1, further comprising a surface onto which the three-dimensional printer prints a skin product.

5. The skin printing system of claim 4, wherein the skin product printed onto the surface corresponds to a model generated by the computer from the set of wound images.

6. The skin printing system of claim 1, further comprising a pump, and wherein skin cells in a syringe are pumped by the pump into the three-dimensional printer.

7. The skin printing system of claim 1, wherein the computer digitizes a wound image and models the digitized image into a set of printing instructions.

8. The skin printing system of claim 4, further comprising an agar plate comprising the surface onto which the three-dimensional printer prints the skin product.