French and Spanish researchers reported the first reconstitution of the complete epidermis from stem cells in The Lancet on November 21, 2009. The aim of the research was to speed the reconstruction of skin tissue for burn victims.
Reconstitution of the entire epidermis does not mean the scientist made a whole human skin. What they have accomplished is isolating skin stem cells and making the cells generate all the cell types that occur naturally in the epidermis.
The skin was grafted onto mice that had been treated to avoid rejection of the "foreign" tissue. The grafted skin demonstrated all the characteristics of mature human skin cells in twelve weeks.
The skin stem cells (keratinocytes) can be kept indefinitely and made to grow so rapidly that any burn can be covered with new tissue in a matter of days. The best method presently available takes three weeks at minimum.
Human embryonic stem cells from lines H9 and SA01 were used to accomplish this development. The bioethics law of 2004 allows the use of human embryonic stem cells in research with special dispensation from the Biomedecine Agency in exceptional cases after submitting protocols to the Biomedecine Agency for an opinion.
Line H9 and Line SA01 information can be obtained at these sites.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/282/5391/1145
http://www.umassmed.edu/Content.aspx?id=48096
https://www.wicell.org/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_download&gid=517
(The Lancet, Volume 374, Issue 9703, Pages 1745 - 1753, 21 November 2009, doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(09)61496-3).
http://www.lancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)61496-3/fulltext
A podcast discussing the breakthrough can be see at
http://podcast.thelancet.com/audio/lancet/2009/9703_21november.mp3
Source "Human embryonic stem cells derivatives enable full reconstruction of the pluristratified epidermis." Hind Guenou 1, Xavier Nissan 1, Fernando Larcher 2, Jessica Feteira 1, Gilles Lemaitre 1, Manoubia Saidani 1, Marcela Del Rio 2, Christine C Barrault 3, François-Xavier Bernard 3, Marc Peschanski 1, Christine Baldeschi 1 and Gilles Waksman 1.
1 Inserm/UEVE U-861, I-STEM, AFM, Institute for Stem cell Therapy and Exploration of Monogenic diseases, 5 rue Henri Desbruères, 91030 Evry cedex, France
2 CIEMAT –CIBER-ER, Epithelial Biomedicine Division, Avenida Complutense, 22 E- 28040, Madrid, Spain.
3 BIOalternatives SAS, 1 bis rue des Plantes, 86160 Gencay, France The Lancet, volume 374, number 9703, 21 November 2009
Scientists' contact details: Marc Peschanski Inserm Research Director Directeur of I-STEM Email: mpeschanski@istem.fr Phone: 01 69 90 85 17
The area of stem cell research is developing so rapidly in so many countries that any generalization would be premature at best. However, a recent article reveals that umbilical cord stem cells actually make cirrhosis of the liver worse in subject mice that had cirrhosis. Things may develop that preexisting disease will only be treatable with certain lines of stem cells developed from certain sources.
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