Welcome to our Skin Grafts and Transplants blog! Here we hope to detail the procedure, recent issues, research, and relevance to health care policy in the field of skin grafts and transplants.

Skin is the largest organ of the human body, represents about 16% of the total body weight, and covers the large majority of the body. As the external covering of the body, skin is the first line of defense against infection from pathogens in the environment. Skin also provides the sensation of touch and pressure, prevents water loss, insulates the body, and regulates body temperature. Therefore, it is an essential barrier and mediator to the outside world that must be maintained. Primary methods to restore irreversibly damaged skin include skin grafts and transplants.

Skin grafting is a step on the reconstructive ladder for wounds that cannot be closed primarily. The "reconstructive ladder" is a generalized term coined to describe complex stepwise procedure to treat physical external injury. Skin grafting is categorized into five distinct types: Autologous (donor and recipient are the same), Isogeneic (donor and recipient are genetically identical), Allogeneic (donor and recipient are same species), xenogeneic (donor and recipient are of different species), and prosthetic (replacement of lost tissue by synthetic materials).

Monday, November 23, 2009

The Use of Stem Cells for Burn Patients?

Stem cells could create new skin to help burns victims

New research shows that human embryonic stem cells can be used to create new skin, which can then be used for serious burn victims. So far research has only been done on mice. Research has shown that stem cells grew into fully formed human skin 12 weeks after being grafted on to mice. This progress could result in a number of advantages for the skin graft procedure. Advancements with stem cells could result in solving problems with rejection and risk of dehydration and infection.

      Most often, a patient suffering from a serious burn normally have a technique where new skin is grown in the laboratory from the patient’s own skin cells, which is then grafted on to the affected area. This technique take about 3 weeks, which leaves the patient at risk of dehydration and infection. Usually skin from a cadaver is used to cover the area that the skin is taken from, however it is not always available and could potentially be rejected.

This research could potentially lead to "an unlimited resource for temporary skin replacement in patients with large burns awaiting grafts of their own skin", with a much smaller risk of rejection. This could lead to a number of advancements in skin grafts, which could even not only more efficient and less painful for the patient, but potentially more cost effective.

There may be one issue from this research. This is due to the use of human embryonic stem cells. The public opinion would be very important, and some may be concerned about the ethical issues surrounding this. Some believe that the embryonic stem cells are a source of life, and therefore by using the stem cells potential life is being destroyed.

It will be interesting to follow this research. The procedure has only been tested on mice, and now needs to go through human trials. I am interested to see if the procedure works similarly as effective or differently to that of the mice. Assuming it succeeds it could develop many advantages to the world of skin grafts.



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