Scientists have made another leap by growing an epidermis in the lab. The research would now possibly help the scientist and pioneers in the medicine to test and research for new drugs and cosmetics. The discovery is almost identical to human skin and behaves in the same way.
Scientists from both King's College London and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center made a success by growing the epidermis in the lab. The research was not a day job; the team of scientist faced many issues in accomplishing the research. Scientists stated that 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.
The tissue engineers stated that the traditional way for generating the cells is only limited to the sample of the skin, but with this way the sample generated are identical.
"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 Dr. Theodora Mauro, lead researcher, from King's College London.
He also included that, "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"
The new method would end the use of animals in drug testing; animals go through intense physical and mental trauma during the tests. The animals used in the tests include rabbits, monkeys, rats and dogs. The tests though does not sometimes affirm that it would be give the same results on the humans also. The epidermis grown in the lab would help to have better and more effective results and would probably end the torture of millions of animals suffering in the labs.
Source : http://www.thewestsidestory.net/2014/04/26/lab-grown-epidermis-end-animal-testing/
