Table 1.

Summaries of current available cells and potential cells in skin bioengineering

Category	Cell types	Advantages	Disadvantages
Somatic cells	Autologous fibroblasts/keratinocytes	Little risk of rejection; reliable applications	Longer time required to expand; not accessible or not in sufficient numbers sometimes
	Allogeneic fibroblasts/keratinocytes	Readily accessible; can be preserved for applications	Potential problems of rejection and disease transfer
Stem cells	Adipose‐derived stem/stromal cells (ASCs)	Abundant and readily accessible; contribute to the production of hypodermis	Vary in metabolic activity; proliferation and differentiation depending on the location of the tissue depot and the age and gender of the patient
	Hair follicle stem cells	Higher proliferative capacity; contribute to the production of epidermis and skin appendages	Not accessible or not in sufficient numbers sometimes
	Epidermal stem cells/Dermal stem cells	Contribute to the production of skin and skin appendages	Not in sufficient numbers; absence of controlled, efficient and reproducible differentiated manner
	Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC)	Relatively easy to obtain and readily expanded; capable of differentiating into various tissues and cells	Absence of controlled, efficient and reproducible differentiated manner
	Embryonic stem cells (ESC)	Totipotent; capable of differentiating into various tissues and cells	Ethical and moral objections
	Differentiated epidermal cells	Potential reversion to undifferentiated stem cells	Relevant mechanism remains unclear
	Induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells	Avoiding immunological rejection and current ethical dilemmas surrounding human ESC	Viral vectors required; lower efficiency