These painful and often life-threatening conditions are treated with dressings for small wounds and burns, and skin grafts for larger areas. Unfortunately, skin grafting leaves another wound at the site where the donor skin has been removed, and sometimes the grafts don't take. This cultured skin product was tested on patients with venous ulcers, and their wounds healed in 57 days, compared to 181 days using standard dressings. Cultured skin is created using the foreskins of circumcised infants. The cells in a piece of skin about the size of a postage stamp can be grown to produce about four acres of skin equivalent.
Cultured skin looks and feels like normal skin, and when wounded, can even heal itself.
It can be grown to any size and shape. Since the patient's own skin eventually replaces the cells of the cultured skin patch, normal skin color returns in time. Along with artificial skin, scientists are working on other tissue products, such as blood vessels, cartilage, and even whole organs.