A clinical trial at Melbourne's Alfred Hospital is testing a novel engineered skin substitute for patients with severe burns, offering hope for a revolutionary advancement in burn treatment. The technique involves taking a small sample of a patient's undamaged skin, growing the cells in an incubator, and then infusing these cells into a hydrogel sheet for grafting onto the burn site. This approach aims to provide a more effective and less traumatic alternative to traditional skin grafts, which can be extremely painful and require multiple harvesting procedures.
Bio-engineered Skin Substitute
Dr. Heather Cleland, a reconstructive plastic surgeon, describes this development as a "holy grail" in burn surgery, an endeavor pursued for over 50 years. The key advantage of using a patient's own cells is the significantly reduced risk of rejection, a common complication with donated skin. The clinical trial focuses on patients with severe burns covering at least 20% of their body.
Early Trial Results
Initial results from the clinical trials have been encouraging. "We've treated two patients so far and although it's very early days in the clinical trial that we're running, we've been very impressed with the results in real life in patients with severe burn injuries," Dr. Cleland stated.
Limitations and Future Research
Despite the positive outcomes, Shiva Akbarzadeh from the Alfred skin bio-engineering laboratory notes that the engineered skin has limitations. "It's still lacking melanocytes so no pigmentation at the moment and also sweat glands and hair follicles not present. So although it functions as a skin, native skin graft in terms of closing the wound - more research should be done." Researchers plan to expand the trial across Australia to further evaluate and refine the engineered skin substitute.
