title: Amniotic membrane as part of a skin substitute for full-thickness wounds: an experimental evaluation in a porcine model.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We evaluated the use of human amniotic membrane (HAM) as a graft material for the treatment of iatrogenic full-thickness (FT) skin wounds in a porcine model with a view to reducing donor site morbidity in free flap transfer.
  
  
  METHODS
  Forty experimental FT-wounds were covered with an autologous split-thickness skin graft (STSG) alone or in combination with a mono- or multilayer HAM or Integra(®). Untreated wounds served as controls. Clinical evaluation and biopsy-sampling for histological and immunohistochemical staining with von-Willebrand-factor (vWF) antibody, laminin antibody, Ki-67 antibody, and smooth muscle actin (αSMA) antibody were performed on days 5, 7, 10, 20, 40, and 60 after surgical intervention.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Considerable disparities in the estimated criteria were observed between the various treatment groups of the FT-wounds. The use of HAM was found to have an accelerating impact on re-epithelialization. The multilayered amnion membrane showed better results than the Integra(®) and monolayer technique in terms of contraction rate, inflammation, and scarring and seemed useful as a dermal substitute in FT-wounds giving comparable results to STSG coverage alone.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates the successful application of HAM as part of a skin substitute in FT-wounds in minipigs. The results offer promise as a simple and effective technique for the application of multilayer HAM in iatrogenic human skin defects and the acceleration of wound healing.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Technische Universität München, München, Germany. Loeffelbein@mkg.med.tum.de.
authors.forename: Denys J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Loeffelbein
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Baumann
authors.forename: Mechthild
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stoeckelhuber
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hasler
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mücke
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Steinsträßer
authors.forename: Enken
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Drecoll
authors.forename: Klaus-Dietrich
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Wolff
authors.forename: Marco R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Kesting
mesh_terms: D000650:Amnion; D000818:Animals; D001684:Biological Dressings; D006801:Humans; D012867:Skin / Q000293:injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D013552:Swine; D013556:Swine, Miniature; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy