| abstract |
Engineered animal skin, hide, and leather comprising a plurality of layers of collagen formed by cultured collagen-producing cells. Layers may be formed by cultured collagen-producing cells that are grown to confluence to form a sheet of collagen, the sheets are treated to prevent contractions, e.g., by decellularizing them with ethanol, and then the sheets are stacked and adhered together by seeding the region between the them with additional collagen-forming cells. Additional filler material may be added between the layers, such as reconstituted collagen or collagen pulp. Multiple layers may be stacked and adhered in this manner. Finally, the sheets may be treated to form leather, by modifying the collagen using a tanning (or a modified tanning) process. |