Progress In Engineered Skin
The Telegraph reports on progress in producing replacement skin: "Scientists said that the successful tests, in which laboratory-made living human skin was fully and consistently integrated into the human body for the first time, marked a clinical breakthrough in regenerative medicine. ... Intercytex said the new skin - called ICX-SKN - appeared to incorporate itself much better with real tissue than any other skin substitutes tried in the past, which biodegrade in situ after a few weeks. The researchers hope it might provide an alternative to skin grafts, which are often used for victims of serious burns and large wounds. ICX-SKN is created from a matrix produced by the same skin cells that are responsible for synthesising new tissue in the body. Results show that the new skin had produced a closed and healed wound site after just 28 days. ... To have an off-the-shelf skin replacement product that can be used in large numbers of patients will revolutionise the treatment of burned and skin damaged patients."
Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/26/nskin126.xml
Why is the latest on stem cell regenerative medicine, regeneration of skin, and other regeneration using extracellular matrix at least 3 years old? Has nothing happened in this field since 2008?
@Sylvia C: bear in mind that three years is just long enough to ready an idea for commercial use, or organize and run one round of trials - you'd only expect to see one level of advancement happen in three years in medicine.
As it happens, regeneration of skin noted a recent impressive demonstration of progress - largely in the tools used to deliver established first generation therapies.
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/02/stem-cells-form-new-skin-rapidly-when-sprayed-on.php
This has been in the works for a year or two:
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2009/11/replacing-skin-grafts-with-autologous-stem-cells.php
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2010/11/spraying-on-stem-cells-to-heal-burns.php