Year of Award

2026

Document Type

Professional Paper

Degree Type

Master of Science (MS)

Degree Name

Pharmaceutical Sciences and Drug Design

Department or School/College

Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Sciences

Committee Chair

Monica Serban

Commitee Members

Erica Woodahl, Christopher Palmer

Keywords

full-thickness skin model, electrical burn, chemical burn, in vitro burn model, wound healing

Subject Categories

Investigative Techniques | Other Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment | Other Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences | Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Abstract

Burn injuries represent a significant global health burden, yet the preclinical models available to study them remain largely limited to animal systems and ex vivo tissue preparations, both of which carry well-documented translational limitations. There is a particular gap in the availability of fully in vitro, full-thickness models capable of recapitulating the mechanistically distinct tissue responses produced by thermal, electrical, and chemical burn insults. Here we describe the development and evaluation of clinical relevance of reproducible electrical and chemical burn protocols for use with in-house generated full-thickness, thin-dermis human skin equivalents maintained at the air-liquid interface (ALI), to produce a multimodal in vitro burn platform. Electrical burns were delivered using a bipolar electrosurgical unit (ESU) equipped with a custom 3D-printed spacing wedge to standardize electrode geometry and discharge characteristics. Chemical burns were induced using xanthan gum-based hydrochloric acid (HCl) and sodium hydroxide (NaOH) gel formulations designed to permit spatially confined, timed topical application with defined contact area, followed by complete neutralization and rinsing. Longitudinal tissue response was assessed by brightfield stereomicroscopy, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) histology, and transepithelial electrical resistance (TEER) at defined time points spanning 22 days post-injury. Each burn modality produced a distinct and reproducible injury profile: electrical burns produced sharply demarcated, persistent lesions with near-complete epidermal loss and no spontaneous healing; NaOH burns produced deeper, more extensive tissue disruption than equimolar HCl burns, consistent with the known mechanisms of alkali versus acid injury. TEER measurements corroborated morphological findings, with electrical and NaOH burns producing acute barrier disruption and HCl burns producing no detectable change relative to baseline. Mechanical debridement of NaOH-burned tissues using a 4 mm biopsy punch was the only condition to produce organized epidermal reconstitution, with re-epithelialization observed by 22 days post-burn, consistent with the known clinical benefit of early debridement in burn wound management. These results demonstrate that the platform produces physiologically relevant, burn-type-specific tissue responses and is sensitive to the current clinical standard of care, positioning it as a practical and ethically sound tool for high-throughput burn therapeutic screening.

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Available for download on Sunday, May 30, 2027

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© Copyright 2026 Jack Michael Van Tine