Burn Wounds Heal Faster With New Artificial Skin

Researchers say that if trials are successful then healing burnt victims' wounds could become an easy and painless task.

A team of researchers are developing technology that could make healing faster by using artificial skin grown from the victim's cells in a cheaper and more effective way than the current procedure.

Burns
Burn injuries have reached epidemic proportions in recent years. Burn accident statistics show that at least 50% of all burn accidents can be prevented.

John Greenwood, Director of the Adult Burn service at Royal Adelaide Hospital has been working with PolyNovo Biomaterials to develop a synthetic material Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) since 2004.

So far, BTM alone has successfully sealed wounds on pigs and trials will next test whether it heals pig burns when their cells are added to grow the artificial skin.

"It's based on a biodegradable polyurethane - it's a plastic that acts as a scaffold to allow us to grow the patient's cells into," the Herald Sun quotedreenwood, as saying.

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If successful in pig and then human trials, it could potentially replace painful skin grafts, which involve repeatedly harvesting burns victims' good skin to treat burns.

"We're not going to leave half of their body covered in scars that we've created (in order) to repair the other half of their body that they've injured," Greenwood said.

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"So the cultured skin substitute is going to abolish the skin graft," he added.

Source-ANI

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