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Scientists from King's College London and San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center have successfully grown an epidermis in a lab. The research was not easy, and the scientists faced many hurdles in accomplishing this impressive feat.
According to The Westside Story, "the epidermis is highly complex as it protects the human body from the dehydration and the harmful microbes and the bacteria. It acts as a shield between the body and the environment and stops the harmful bodies from entering into the skin. The lab generated epidermis was grown in a low humidity environment and was capable of stopping the water to come inside or the bodily fluids to drain out."
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With this method, the cells of the epidermis that ended up being generated were identical to the sample.
"Our new method can be used to grow much greater quantities of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents, and thus could be scaled up for commercial testing of drugs and cosmetics. We can use this model to study how the skin barrier develops normally, how the barrier is impaired in different diseases and how we can stimulate its repair and recovery," said lead researcher Dr. Theodora Mauro.
"Human epidermal equivalents representing different types of skin could also be grown, depending on the source of the stem cells used, and could thus be tailored to study a range of skin conditions and sensitivities in different populations," Mauro added.
This is an important breakthrough because many animals are harmed or even killed in laboratory testing. Additionally, even when certain products work well on animals, it is not a given that they would work for humans. The lab-grown epidermis would be a much better barometer for gauging the effectiveness of a product, and would likely save millions of innocent animals.
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Source : http://www.designntrend.com/articles/13208/20140426/lab-grown-epidermis-could-save-millions-of-animals-from-testing.htm
