A cell therapy company called Intercytex announced a clinical breakthrough as they managed to create living human skin in the laboratory. Not only that; this replica of human skin had fully integrated into the human body and had closed and healed wounds.
This artificial skin developed by British scientists could revolutionize the treatment of burns victims and could possibly put an end to painful grafts.
Currently, skin that is badly burned is usually replaced with healthy sections of skin taken from other areas of the body. This procedure is called skin grafting and is very painful. Not only that, it also creates an extra wound on an already badly injured patient.
The trial consisted of six healthy volunteers who agreed to have some skin removed from their arm and replaced with Intercytex’s skin graft replacement product.
According to Intercytex, after 28 days the grafts were rapidly overgrown with the volunteers’ cells, and the wounds healed.
Dr Paul Kemp, founder of Intercytex and the company’s chief scientific officer, said the graft was aimed at those who had sustained a traumatic injury such as a burn or a wound caused by surgery or trauma.
But he said it was not aimed at chronic wounds that affect the elderly or diabetics, which are much harder to treat.
Dr.Kemp said, “For regenerative medicine to fulfill its promise, scientists need to develop cellular implants that are accepted and integrated into the human body. So far this has proved elusive but today’s research shows, for the first time, that it can be achieved.”
However, as of now, Intercytex’s skin graft procedure is yet at a very early stage. Scientists said that people would have to wait until the company conducts further clinical trials with a much larger number of patients.