Scientists made a lab‑grown skin model that was genetically tweaked to produce the natural antimicrobial peptide LL‑37. The modified skin grew better and was able to kill common wound bacteria like Staph aureus more effectively than normal skin. This shows LL‑37 has real potential to help wounds heal and stay infection‑free, but the technique used (gene‑delivery to skin cells) isn’t something you can do at home yet.

Inefficient autologous tissue recovery in skin wounds increases the susceptibility of patients to infections caused by multidrug resistant microorganisms, resulting in a high mortality rate. Genetic modification of skin cells has become an important field of study because it could lead to the construction of more functional skin grafts, through the overexpression of antimicrobial peptides that would prevent early contamination and infection with bacteria. In this study, we produce and evaluate human skin equivalents (HSEs) containing transfected human primary fibroblasts and keratinocytes by polyplexes to express the antimicrobial peptide LL-37. The effect of LL-37 on the metabolic activity of normal HSEs was evaluated before the construction of the transfected HSEs, and the antimicrobial efficacy against <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> and <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> was evaluated. Subsequently, the levels of LL-37 in the culture supernatants of transfected HSEs, as well as the local expression, were determined. It was found that LL-37 treatment significantly promoted the cellular proliferation of HSEs. Furthermore, HSEs that express elevated levels of LL-37 were shown to possess histological characteristics close to the normal skin and display enhanced antimicrobial activity against <i>S. aureus in vitro</i>. These findings demonstrate that HSEs expressing LL-37 through nonviral modification of skin cells are a promising approach for the prevention of bacterial colonization in wounds.