Japanese scientists have published a new study in Science Advances that tells of their latest development involving lab-grown skin. This artificial skin had the ability to sweat and grow hair and when implanted onto living mice it bonded with the animals’ muscle fibres and nerves. The scientists from Japan’s RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology are hoping these results will allow them to move forward with further research into skin transplants for burn victims or those suffering with skin diseases.
Although the actual process of growing artificial skin in a lab is not new, the ability to create skin that can grow hair and sweat is. Also, unlike previous artificial skin that has been produced, the RIKEN team’s skin features three layers of skin like humans. The process started with the scientists first extracting a bunch of cells from the gums of mice. The gum cells were then mixed with chemicals to transform them into something similar to stem cells. It is these final cells that developed into a fully functioning, three layer, skin sample.
Credit: © Takashi Tsuji, RIKEN
The artificial skin cells that were produced by the RIKEN scientists attached itself to the mice’s nerves and muscle tissues when implanted onto their skin and hair growth became noticeable after about two weeks. This revolutionary process has the potential to induce big changes within the medical field. However, currently the research has only been carried out on mice, and to experiment on humans would be a whole different ball game. But, the scientists are hopeful that at least they can use the new lab-grown skin as a testing system for cosmetics which would cut down the need for testing on animals
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