Journal of Clinical & Experimental Dermatology Research
Open Access

Novel method for generating fractional epidermal micro-grafts

Vitiligo and Skincare Physicians Meeting

September 15-16, 2016 Berlin, Germany

Martin Purschke, Falguni A Asrani, Sameer A Sabir, William A Farinelli and R Rox Anderson

Massachusetts General Hospital-Harvard Medical School, USA

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Clin Exp Dermatol Res

Abstract :

Epidermal suction blister grafting is an effective treatment for wounds or vitiligo but tedious and limited to small areas. We developed two novel strategies to create â�?�?fractionalâ�? epidermal grafts and compared them. Epidermal blisters were raised from fresh human skin ex vivo at 38-40 oC, with suction of 380-510 mm Hg. In Strategy-1, a 1 cm blister was micro-meshed into ~500 pieces, transferred to elastic adhesive dressing, then pneumatically expanded to ~9x the original blister area. Strategy-2: a 25 cm2 array of 100 small blisters was raised, simultaneously harvested and captured directly onto an adhesive dressing. The pneumatic expansion limit, release of micro-blisters upon hydration of the dressing adhesive, light microscopy, epidermal cell viability and DOPA positive melanocyte presence in blisters were measured. Both strategies yielded viable fractional epidermal micro-blister arrays, carried on a dressing for transfer to graft-recipient sites. The micro-blisters were gradually released upon hydration of the dressing adhesive. Strategy-2 has major advantages; only small blisters are made at the donor site, skillful dissection and physical expansion are not required and the strategy can be scaled to create large area grafts. Strategy-2 is practical for fractional epidermal micro-grafting and has recently been commercialized.

Biography :

Email: MPURSCHKE@mgh.harvard.edu