# Development of engineered fasciocutaneous skin flaps

> **NIH NIH R01** · MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL · 2024 · $356,378

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 Deformities created by birth defects, trauma, inflammation, and medical conditions including cancer
constitute a significant global health burden accounting for 11% of worldwide disability-adjusted life years and
can be corrected by reconstructive surgery. Standard reconstructive techniques include autologous, pedicled
or vascularized tissue flaps to replace moderate to severe composite tissue defects. Limitation of these
methods include donor-site morbidity and difficulty in shaping the graft to restore complex three-dimensional
anatomy. In the case of fasciocutaneous flaps, both factors are limiting – and a significant portion of such
defects cannot be treated with current techniques. In the longer term, Vascularized composite allografts
(VCAs) have potential to revolutionize the treatment of complex soft tissue absence by providing an
anatomically exact tissue unit enabling like-for-like restoration, but is impractical as long as the recipient
requires toxic immunosuppression which limited the number of VCA transplants to about 150 over the last 2
decades.
 Our long-term goal is to engineer vascular composite allografts using patient specific cells for repairing
composite tissue defects. The goal of this project is to develop a novel protocol for creating fasciocutaneous
flaps (FCF) that are vascularized and blood compatible, which would provide a straightforward path to treating
some currently unfixable defects clinically in the short-term, while laying the groundwork for building more
complex tissues in the long term. The rationale of the study is that while most past biomaterials research has
focused on producing the ideal scaffold from the ground up using synthetic materials, the native extracellular
matrix (ECM), de facto contains much of necessary architecture and environmental cues absent from synthetic
matrices, and hence presents a promising, more realistic alternative approach for producing engineered tissue
substitutes, which can vertically advance the field of tissue engineering.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10885133
- **Project number:** 5R01AR082825-02
- **Recipient organization:** MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Basak Elif Uygun
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $356,378
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-15 → 2028-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10885133

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10885133, Development of engineered fasciocutaneous skin flaps (5R01AR082825-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10885133. Licensed CC0.

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