Researchers create artificial human skin

Scientists from the University of Granada, Spain, have generated artificial human skin by tissular engineering basing on agarose-fibrin biomaterial. The artificial skin was grafted onto mice, and optimal development, maturation and functionality results were obtained.

This pioneering finding will allow the clinical use of human skin and its use in many laboratory tests on biological tissues –which, additionally, would avoid the use of laboratory animals. Further, this finding could be useful in developing new treatment approaches for dermatological pathologies.

This research was conducted by José María Jiménez Rodríguez, from the Tissular Engineering Research group of the Department of Histology of the University of Granada, and coordinated by professors Miguel Alaminos Mingorance, Antonio Campos Muñoz and José Miguel Labrador Molina.

Researchers from the University of Granada firstly selected the cells that would be employed in generating artificial skin. Then, they analysed the evolution of the in-vitro culture and, finally, they performed a quality control of the tissues grafted onto nude mice. To this purpose, several inmunofluorescence microscopy techniques had to be developed. These techniques allowed researchers to evaluate such factors as cell proliferation, the presence of differentiating morphological markers, the expression of cytokeratin, involucrine and filaggrin, angiogenesis and artificial skin development into the recipient organism. ...

The experiment conducted by the University of Granada is the first to create artificial human skin with a dermis made of fibrin-agarose biomaterial. To this date, artificial skin substitutes were elaborated with other biomaterials as collagen, fibrin, polyglycolic acid, chitosan, etc.

These biomaterials "added resistance, firmness and elasticity to the skin" –according to Prof. Jiménez Rodríguez. "Definitively, we have created a more stable skin with similar functionality to normal human skin."

via Researchers create artificial human skin | Machines Like Us.

1/15/2009: A new study suggests that skin can be regenerated using adult bone marrow stem cells.

Reported in the journal Artificial Organs, the finding attains significance as it marks an advancement in wound healing, and may be used to pioneer a method of organ reconstruction.

With a view to determining the possibility of repairing burn wounds with a combination of tissue-engineered skin and bone marrow stem cells, the study established a burn wound model in the skin of pigs, which is known to be anatomically and physiologically similar to human skin.

Yan Jin of the Fourth Military Medical University, lead author of the study, has revealed that engineering technology and biomedical theory methods were used to make artificial skin with natural materials and bone marrow derived stem cells.

The researcher said that after the artificial skin was attached to the patient, and the dermal layer had begun to regenerate, stem cells were differentiated into skin cells.

According to Jin, the cells are self-renewing and raise the quality of healing in wound healing therapy.  ... "We hope that this so-called `engineered structural tissue' will someday replace plastic and metal prostheses currently used to replace damaged joints and bones by suitable materials and stem cells," says Jin. (ANI)

via TopNews