Poieskin® : the Human Skin Model entirely produced by 3D bioprinting.

Poieskin® Bioprinted Human Full Thickness Skin Model

Poieskin® is a Human Full Thickness Skin Model entirely produced by 3D bioprinting.

Poieskin® consists of a dermal compartment composed of primary human fibroblasts embedded in a collagen I matrix overlaid by a stratified epidermis derived from primary human keratinocytes.

Histological analyses show a remodeled dermis with neo-collagen I synthesis and an epidermis with at least 8 cell layers as well as a stratum corneum.

Poieskin® stains positive for human collagen I in the dermis, epidermal differentiation markers (cytokeratin 5, cytokeratin 10, filaggrin) and a dermo-epidermal junction marker (collagen IV).

HES staining of Poieskin® skin model at D12 Air-Liquid interface

Collagen I / DAPI staining

Cytokeratin 5 / Cytokeratin 10 / DAPI staining

Collagen IV / DAPI staining

Filaggrin / DAPI staining

Poieskin® biofabrication workflow

Poieskin® biofabrication starts with dermis bioprinting and dermis maturation, followed by keratinocytes bioprinting, epidermal proliferation and stratification at the air liquid interface.

Biofabrication workflow of Poieskin®

Dermis Bioprinting

Dermis bioprinting proceeds by depositing fibroblasts and collagen layer-by-layer to give rise to a 3D cell pattern. This bioprinted pattern (number of collagen layers, distance between cells and number of cells per droplet) has been optimized to reach a controlled cell distribution within the dermis. Accordingly, Poieskin® dermal compartment results from studies dealing with fibroblasts 3D self-organization over time. (cf. video)

SPIM imaging of three 3D patterns of fibroblasts bioprinted between collagen layers. 3D reconstructions show the precise positioning of fibroblasts over layers and the evolution of cell patterns from day D0 (left) to D2 (right).

Keratinocytes Bioprinting

Following dermis maturation, keratinocytes are bioprinted on the surface of the dermal equivalent. The keratinocyte cell pattern has been designed to ensure a homogeneous cell seeding and an optimized cell proliferation phase. Finally, the skin constructs are raised to the air-liquid interface to enable epidermal stratification.

Manual (N-Cadherin / DAPI staining)

Printed (N-Cadherin / DAPIstaining)

A reproducible manufacturing process

Poieskin® biofabrication benefits from the latest advances in 3D bioprinting technology. The high precision and resolution of Poietis bioprinter NGB 17.03 as well as the embedded in-line monitoring systems enable to control the quality of each bioprinted layer and hence to manufacture controlled 3D cell structures and reproducible tissue models.