title: Glycerol treatment as recovery procedure for cryopreserved human skin allografts positive for bacteria and fungi.
abstract: Human donor skin allografts are suitable and much used temporary biological (burn) wound dressings. They prepare the excised wound bed for final autografting and form an excellent substrate for revascularisation and for the formation of granulation tissue. Two preservation methods, glycerol preservation and cryopreservation, are commonly used by tissue banks for the long-term storage of skin grafts. The burn surgeons of the Queen Astrid Military Hospital preferentially use partly viable cryopreserved skin allografts. After mandatory 14-day bacterial and mycological culture, however, approximately 15% of the cryopreserved skin allografts cannot be released from quarantine because of positive culture. To maximize the use of our scarce and precious donor skin, we developed a glycerolisation-based recovery method for these culture positive cryopreserved allografts. The inactivation and preservation method, described in this paper, allowed for an efficient inactivation of the colonising bacteria and fungi, with the exception of spore-formers, and did not influence the structural and functional aspects of the skin allografts.
authors.affiliation: Skin- and Keratinocyte Bank, Laboratory for Molecular and Cellular Technology, Burn Wound Centre, Queen Astrid Military Hospital, Brussels, Belgium. gilbert.verbeken@mil.be
authors.forename: Gilbert
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Verbeken
authors.forename: Gunther
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Verween
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: De Vos
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pascual
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: De Corte
authors.forename: Cornelia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Richters
authors.forename: Arlette
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: De Coninck
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Roseeuw
authors.forename: Nadine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ectors
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Serge
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jennes
authors.forename: Jean-Paul
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Pirnay
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000187:drug effects*; D015925:Cryopreservation / Q000379:methods*; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects*; D005990:Glycerol / Q000494:pharmacology*; D006801:Humans; D012867:Skin / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000382:microbiology*; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D014019:Tissue Donors; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous
chemical_list: D005990:Glycerol