Hybrid living electronic skin for proactive scarless wound healing.

Abstract

The integration of electronics with bioactive materials derived from living organisms offers a new paradigm to enable bidirectional modulation of human physiology by wearable therapeutic systems. Here, decellularized skin is integrated with electronic tattooing to create living biohybrid wearable electronics (DC-eSkin) for enhanced wound management. Decellularized porcine skin provides living-organism-derived components for promoted recellularization of the human cells at the xenografting site. Epidermis-tattooed circuits function as the electronic interfacing for proactive induction of acute inflammatory response, recruiting immune cells and skin cells to engage rapid wound healing at the early recovery stage, also supporting angiogenesis and neo-tissue regeneration at later stages. Across different preclinical wound models, DC-eSkin treatment effectively engages ^∼80 folds more acute inflammatory responses and achieves ∼85 % improved wound closure compared to the controls. Notably, nearly ^∼100 % scar suppression is also achieved at the wound healing terminal, as the result of a synergy of substantially superior recellularization and host-tissue integration of the xenografted DC-eSkin.