Lab-created skin helps wounds heal
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- DeliaTheArtist
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more from Upstream:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/02/growing.skin/index.html
"One day, Adell Tomas, who lives outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvaniashe noticed a huge sore on the bottom of her foot. Like many diabetics, she has little feeling in her feet, so she had no idea what had caused the sore or even how long it had been there."It was huge and looked terribly infected," she recalled. "Dark red, almost black."
A few weeks later, Tomas' foot was amputated; the wound was so large, her doctors couldn't repair it.
"Doctors said at that time there was nothing they could do," the 51-year-old said.
That was then.
Now, doctors who specialize in wound management are growing skin to help people like Tomas save their limbs and extremities. Pharmaceutical and biotech companies are extracting collagen -- a protein that makes up 75 percent of skin -- from donated skin and creating grafts, or patches, that can induce a patient's own skin to grow. The donated skin can come from a variety of sources: anything from a pig's pancreas to a baby's foreskin.
"In some cases, we can get four football fields of skin out of one baby foreskin," said Dr. James McGuire, head of wound management at the Foot and Ankle Institute at the School of Podiatric Medicine at Temple University, in Philadelphia. "If taken care of, skin can grow and grow."
Some patches are created from animal organs, such as cow intestines, and even from the skin of some reptiles. A New Zealand company has developed a patch that contains honey, which is a natural antiseptic. Other patches contain elements such as silver, which has been shown in studies to be an excellent antibacterial agent.
Whether a patient needs a patch from a bovine or a boa is determined by the injury. Depending on its origin, a graft can differ in size, thickness and how fast it generates tissue.
"Although all of these patches can help mend wounds, it really depends on the wound itself as to which patch you should use," McGuire said. "How much is it infected, how long it's been infected, what the infection is, that sort of thing."
THE FUTURE IS NOW! What do you think of artificial skin?
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/11/02/growing.skin/index.html
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tangibleparadox
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i read this part to my fiance: "In some cases, we can get four football fields of skin out of one baby foreskin." he replied: "i wish they would do that with skin from a baby's [bum], it'd be so much softer."
anyway, very cool stuff.
- 4 months ago
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tangibleparadox
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nursediesel
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Way to cover open wounds if they are surgically debrided and treated to prevent futher infection and breakdown.
- 4 months ago
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nursediesel
