Currently, the development and the implementation of the new biotechnological wound coverings (skin equivalents) designed for temporal or permanent replacement of damaged or destroyed areas of human skin remains extremely actual relevant in clinical practice. Skin equivalents or equivalents of individual skin layers which include alive cells of different types take a special place among the artifi cial wound coverings. They mostly contain two basic types of cells-fi broblasts and keratinocytes (together or separately). Such bioconstructions are usually served as temporary coverings, which supply the damaged skin by biologically active substances and stimulate the regeneration of the patient's own tissues. In this review we consider as commercially available wound coverings and those which are still studied in the laboratories. Until now ideal substitutes of natural skin have not yet created, so the efforts of many researchers are focusing on the solution of this problem. K e y w o r d s: artifi cial skin, skin equivalents or substitutes, wound dermal coverages, tissue engineering, cell, wound.

Aim. The aim was to estimate the influence of cell suspension quality on the therapeutic efficiency of cell-containing dermal coverages in animal model in vivo. Methods. We carried out the application of gel wound coverages with different quality of cellular compound on the third degree burns of ICR line mice. In the negative control group animals were treated with fresh medium-containing gel, and in positive control – by gel containing high quality cell suspension. Photo fixation of burn wound status was carried out once a day. The results were estimated by ANOVA approach. Results. There was a statistically significant difference of burn wounds development and healing between positive control and both experimental groups. The decreasing of alive cell fraction in prepared gel within 5 hours has been shown as well. Conclusions. It has been shown the dependence of wound healing properties of coatings containing cells on the cell compound quality, in particular, from the viability and integrity of cells. These results are important for developing of clinical protocols using such cell‑containing dermal equivalents. Keywords: burn wound, dermal equivalent, stem cells, skin substitute, tissue engineering.