This is developing into a
complete solution. Right now it appears
that they can clean and coat severely burned skin in the same treatment session,
and apply a protective and supportive coat on top of it. This results in a healing process that lasts
only a few days rather than weeks.
Looking at the video (go to the link) we see a surface showing no sign
of likely scaring. This is amazing.
Thus it is clear that second
degree burning can be well handled and I am sure that third degree burns will
also respond well once we figure out how to fine tune the protocols.
One other tweak would be to
immerse the injury in gel containing ample bio available oxygen but that will
take time to work out.
At least we are having serious
progress on this particular healing nightmare.
Skin-cell spray gun drastically cuts healing time for burns
February 8, 2011 by Lin Edwards
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists in the US
The Skin-cell Gun works essentially like a sophisticated paint spray
gun. It was developed by Professor Joerg C. Gerlach and colleages of the
Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburg’s McGowan Institute for
Regenerative Medicine. The concept was first introduced in 2008.
Until now burns have usually been treated with skin grafts, which
involve taking skin sections from uninjured parts of the patient’s body, or
growing sheets of skin artificially, and grafting them over the burn. The
grafts can take several weeks or even months to heal, and during the recovery
period patients are prone to infections because of the damage to the skin,
which is the body’s first line of defense against pathogens.
Scientists have been able to regenerate skin in the laboratory for
decades, but the process takes two to three weeks and the sheets of skin
produced are fragile. When grafted on, blisters can form beneath it due to
secretions, and can push up against the sheet and damage it.
Skin spraying have been in use for some time elsewhere, such as in Australia , where Dr Fiona Wood of the West Australia Burns Unit developed a method called
“spray-on-skin.” Dr Wood’s method uses an aerosol system to spray on cultured
skin cells. This system also cuts healing time to days rather than weeks or
months, and the technique substantially cut the death toll in the Bali bombings in 2002.
Dr Gerlach said the new method uses an electronically controlled
pneumatic device that does not injure the cells, while the other skin spraying
devices are hand-pumped atomizers.
In a process taking only an hour and a half in total, a biopsy is
taken from the patient’s undamaged skin and then healthy stem cells are
isolated from the biopsy and an aqueous solution containing the cells is
sprayed on the burn.
The sprayed wound is then covered with a newly-developed dressing with
tubes enmeshed within it and extending from each end. One set of tubes
functions as an artery, while the second set functions as a vein. The tubes are
connected to an “artificial vascular system” and provide electrolytes,
antibiotics, amino acids and glucose to the wound. The dressing keeps the wound
clean and sterile, and provides nutrition for the skin stem cells to encourage
them to regenerate new skin.
After treatment the wound heals in just days, when it would have taken
weeks to heal using traditional treatments. Dr Gerlach said patients had been
treated at the Berlin
Burn Center
At the moment the technique can only be used on second-degree burns,
but Dr Gerlach hopes it will later be able to tackle third-degree burns as well.
The research is funded by the US Department of Defense under the Armed
Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM) consortium of research
institutions, which was formed in 2008 to research better treatments for
wounded service personnel.
The Skin-cell Gun will be shown on the National Geographic channel in
the episode Explorer: How to Build a Beating Heart, which looks at the latest
tissue regeneration techniques.
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