A rapid screening method for wound dressing by cell-on-a-chip device.

This report demonstrates an in vitro method for screening wound dressing candidates that can minimize the use of animals for developing better methods for wound care. The development of materials and formulations for wound dressings, an important application of biomaterials, is laboriously and ethically challenging because of the use of a large number of animals. A method for rapid and effective screening of wound dressings in vitro, therefore, is in great need. A cell-on-a-chip model was used to simulate the cutaneous wound in vitro and screen the performances of several electrospun fibrous wound dressings in enhancing wound healing. For comparison, the performances of wound dressings were also evaluated in a rat model. It was found that the results acquired by microchip model corroborates well with animal experiments. It is the first time, as far as we know, that a good correlation between in vitro and in vivo results is reported for fibrous wound dressings. The cell-on-a-chip wound model we developed here may change the way that scientists screen candidates for wound dressings.