In a first, skin ‘grown’ from tissue cells to heal wounds

The study, published on Thursday in ‘Nature’, involves a technology called “cell reprogramming” in which genes are inserted into cells to change its from. AFP  |  September 07, 2018, 08:43 IST
Kurita, a plastic surgeon and professor at the University of Tokyo, began working on the technique 10 years ago.
Kurita, a plastic surgeon and professor at the University of Tokyo, began working on the technique 10 years ago.
TOKYO: In a world first, researchers have transformed tissue cells into skin cells to heal wounds, a technique that could revolutionise care for victims of burns and other injuries.

The study, published on Thursday in ‘Nature’, involves a technology called “cell reprogramming” in which genes are inserted into cells to change its from. “This is the first description of reprogramming of tissue cells to skin cells,” lead author Masakazu Kurita said.

Kurita, a plastic surgeon and professor at the University of Tokyo, began working on the technique 10 years ago. The first stage involved identifying genes in skin cells but not in tissue cells, which could be isolated and then inserted into tissue cells to transform them.

He conducted around 2,000 trials with different combinations of genes and eventually, hit upon a four-gene combination and began testing it in wounds on mice. Along with existing drug treatments, they healed a lesion one centimetre in diameter in two weeks.