New system for shaping autologous soft tissue implants

Research lead

Cartilage, bones and the internal walls of blood vessels can be generated from connective tissue cells derived from human skin. Now researchers in reconstructive plastic surgery at Linköping University have successfully manipulated these tissue cells to take on different shapes, depending on the medium they have been cultivated in.

Different strategies have previously been attempted to grow autologous tissue from stem cells, bone marrow or other sources. However, these can be difficult to harvest, cultivate and store. In comparison, connective tissue cells from human skin are easy to harvest, and a small biopsy is all that is required to collect a sufficient amount of cells.

“They are very easy to collect and cultivate into the cell type required. They are also very suitable to use to create a personal cell bank,” says Gunnar Kratz, Professor of Experimental Plastic Surgery, and team leader for the research group.

Together with his colleagues, he has developed a technique to grow bone-, cartilage- and endothelial-like cells, the building blocks of the inner walls of blood vessels, from connective tissue cells. The technique has been used to create whole tissue in gelatine scaffolds, and currently preparations are underway to transplant these complete tissue pieces into laboratory animals.

The cell cultures have been cultivated in four different environments optimised for bone, cartilage, fat and endothelium. The studies are the first in the world where the results have been able to show connective tissue cells from human skin transformed into other phenotypes and creating other types of tissue.

“The dream is to be able to manipulate connective tissue cells in the human body to develop into specific cell types, for example to create bone cells for broken bones,” says Gunnar Kratz.