Microfluidic bioprinter for in-situ formation of engineered skin grafts for burn wound treatment

The standard of care for patients with full thickness burns is the application of acellular extracellular matrix materials which provide a temporary barrier against infection, but drawbacks include the high cost of treatment and the need for multiple surgeries. We report the development of a handheld bioprinter to organize fibrinogen and collagen based soft biomaterials through a microfluidic device to pattern mesenchymal stromal cells from human burn patients directly on the wound site. In contrast to spraying keratinocytes or injecting cell-laden microparticles, delivering cells within a patterned biomaterial enables reconstitution of the dermal-epidermal interfacial architecture of intact skin.