Collagen and elastin scaffold by electrospinning for skin tissue engineering applications

In recent years, tissue engineering has helped to reduce hospital stays and deaths caused by skin wounds. Scaffolds are one of the main factors that influence the success of any tissue graft. Collagen is one of the main components of the extracellular matrix, and there has been much interest in new sources for application as a biomaterial. In this work, a tissue engineering scaffold was developed using the electrospinning technique. The chicken skin was used as an alternative source to obtain collagen. The combination of this collagen with elastin was successfully electrospun, and a distribution of diameters was obtained, less than 100 nm. In vitro tests showed the adhesion and proliferation of the cells, as well as an absence of cytotoxicity from non–cross-linked scaffolds and scaffolds that were cross-linked with carbonyldiimidazole. The structure and composition of the developed scaffolding provide a favorable environment for cell growth and generating a skin substitute.