Background
Pre-clinical drug trials for wound healing often involve animal studies that are both un-ethical and can provide results that are different to what happens in human bodies. Engineered skin models, grown with human cells, have the potential to replace animal models. This reduces cruelty and provides more accurate results. In this work, an epidermis is grown on top of a hydrogel matrix with a 3D printed simulated vascular network.
My Role
Part of the project involved studying bacterial infections on the epidermis layer and showing that the model responded in the same way as an actual patients body would. Having already designed and used my own Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) in the past, I was asked to run the ELISA on this project. The ELISAs were targeted at pro-inflammatory cytokines TNF-a and IL-1B. The results are shown in figures E and F in the image below. A positive statistically significant difference was shown between infected and uninfected models.
