Dr David Warde

UK Centre for Tissue Engineering

Faculty of Life Sciences

Michael Smith Building

University of Manchester

Oxford Road

MANCHESTER  M13 9PT

email: d.warde@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

Research Interests

A common feature of both autologous skin grafts and living skin equivalents is the absence of a hypodermal fat layer. However, this layer of skin has a rich vascular and neural network, and performs important functions such as insulation, triglyceride storage, and acts as an endocrine/secretory organ. These properties may improve “graft-take”, reduce scarring and maintain normal dermal architecture when retained in skin grafts or when incorporated into artificial skin substitutes. A problem exists however, in that little is known about repair of the hypodermal fat layer following injury and so any assessment of grafts and skin equivalents would not be comparable to any pre-existing baseline data of normal repair.

My PhD aims to elucidate the effect of cutaneous wounding and autologous skin-grafting on the structure of the hypodermis in a murine model.  The main focus of this final year of my PhD, has been to assess the effect hair follicle cycling on both the regulation of adipogenesis in the hypodermis and its effect on the repair process following wounding. Findings from this work are currently being written for publication and as a member of the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering, I am now taking a tissue engineering approach to regenerate the hypodermis following wounding and also develop improved skin replacements.

Figure 1. BALB/c skin at different stages in the hair follicle cycle.  Two transverse sections of skin at different stages in the hair follicle cycle as indicated by the distribution of the follicles and the thickness of the SL.  (A) Thin SL, hair follicles distributed in the papillary dermis. (B) Thick SL, hair follicles distributed throughout the dermis and subcutaneous layer.  Key: E = epidermis, D = dermis, SL = subcutaneous layer, PC = panniculus carnosus (Bar = 200μm, Sections stained with Massons Trichrome).

Figure 2: 3T3-L1 Preadipocytes 6-days post-administration of adipogenesis.  Adipogenesis was induced through the addition of culture medium supplemented with dexamethosome (1µm), methylisobutylxanthine (0.5mM) and insulin (5µg/ml).  (Bar = 50µm. Cells stained with Oil Red O)   Trichrome).