Tissue engineering uses the concepts of cell biology, bioengineering, and materials methods, in order to repair or replace living tissue. A specific topic of tissue engineering is called artificial skin. Artificial skin can be defined as any material designed to replace skin injured by burns or other trauma. The main purpose of artificial skin is to provide a barrier of protection from dehydration, protein loss, and infection after the skin has been severely damaged. In 1979 the first successful artificial skin treatment was used on a woman who had burns covering approximately fifty percent of her body. About thirty years ago, victims with burns covering half their bodies usually died. Nowadays, victims who have burns covering ninety percent of their body are usually able to survive thanks to advances in tissue engineering and medicine. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The need for artificial skin is critical because it can help many people with severe burns and skin diseases. Victims of severe second- and third-degree burns are often treated with artificial skin. Additionally, skin conditions such as diabetic foot ulcers, which are sores on the sole of the foot caused by diabetes, have recently been treated with artificial skin and is becoming an increasingly popular treatment. Other skin diseases such as recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa occur in infants and children. Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa causes widespread blistering and areas of complete skin loss. Artificial skin has been used to treat recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa and has shown good results against the disease. Artificial skin has changed the way doctors and professionals view the treatment of injured skin. The closest thing to artificial skin at the time was skin grafts. Skin grafts were first used by Reverdin in 1871. Although skin grafts have been successful in treating wounds and skin disorders, they have limitations such as immune rejection, infections, availability of healthy skin sites, pain, and scarring. That said, artificial skin may be a better skin substitute because doctors don't have to worry about the availability of donor skin and the risk of the patient rejecting the new skin. One artificial skin product currently on the market is called Apligraf. Apligraf is one of only four artificial skin products approved by the FDA. Apligraf is very similar to real human skin because it has both a living dermis and epidermis. The dermis layer is made up of bovine collagen type 1 and human dermal cells. The epidermal layer is made up of keratinocytes or epidermal cells, which separate and multiply to form an epidermal layer similar to the human epidermal layer. Although Apligraf is similar to human skin, it is missing some key components of real skin. Some of these missing components are Langerhans cells, melanocytes, lymphocytes, sweat glands, hair follicles, and macrophages.