Skin tissue engineering--in vivo and in vitro applications.

Significant progress has been made over the years in the development of in vitro-engineered substitutes that mimic human skin, either to be used as grafts for the replacement of lost skin or for the establishment of human-based in vitro skin models. This review summarizes these advances in in vivo and in vitro applications of tissue-engineered skin. We further highlight novel efforts in the design of complex disease-in-a-dish models for studies ranging from disease etiology to drug development and screening. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.