Skin and hair-on-a-chip: Hair and skin assembly versus native skin maintenance in a chip-based perfusion system

Background and novelty In recent decades, substantial progress to mimic structures and complex functions of human skin in the form of skin equivalents has been achieved. Different approaches to generate functional skin models were made possible by the use of improved bioreactor technologies and advanced tissue engineering. Although various forms of skin models are successfully being used in clinical applications, in basic research, current systems still lack essential physiological properties for toxicity testing and compound screening (such as for the REACH program) and are not suitable for high-throughput processes.