Team creates tissue to save someone’s skin
MEDICAL MARVEL: UKM technology awaiting trials
KUALA LUMPUR: PATIENTS with heart problems or those suffering from osteoarthritis have long agonised about finding a cure without medication or major surgery. Tissue engineering may be the answer.
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Tissue Engineering Centre head Prof Dr Ruzymah Idrus said tissue engineering was set to change the medical field.
Dr Ruzymah and her team are known for developing cutting-edge technology to create human skin.
Using tissue engineering technology, the team has grown human skin, which can help burn victims and diabetics heal faster, while eliminating the risk of tissue rejection. This is without the need for extensive and painful skin replacement surgery.
Tissue engineering can be understood by watching a lizard that has lost its tail. When the tail gets cut off, it is able to grow back.
“The study of tissue engineering could allow humans the ability to grow their own organs,” said Dr Ruzymah.
She told of a case, involving a 4-year-old girl who suffered severe burns and was in critical condition, that had amazed scientists the world over.
The normal treatment for burn victims is split-thickness skin grafting, where healthy skin is cut off and pasted on the wound. In the girl’s case, doctors had tried the procedure several times, but they proved unsuccessful.
The girl’s parents had almost accepted that their daughter was not going to live and refused permission for her scalp, which was the only area left to be used in the procedure, to be removed.
The doctors contacted Dr Ruzymah and asked for her help. She took a small piece of skin from the girl to cultivate in her lab. She transferred the then larger piece of skin onto the girl’s wounds.
“Everyone was worried because it is a new technology. But, the girl’s wounds healed with minimal scarring and she walked out of the hospital on her own.”
Since then, the technology has been patented and is awaiting clinical trial before it can be made available to the public. Dr Ruzymah is experimenting on other human organs and has created human bone.
“Tissue engineering has immense benefits. A patient who requires a heart bypass surgery would need only a stem-cell injection, and a new blood vessel will be able to grow, bypassing the blocked vessel.
“A person suffering from osteoarthritis will no longer have to put up with the pain, as with the technology, cartilage can be grown.
“This means that a person with knee-cap problems can just receive an injection,” she said, adding that it would take some time before this could be done.
Source: Team creates tissue to save someone’s skin – General – New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/nation/general/team-creates-tissue-to-save-someone-s-skin-1.367394#ixzz2hOrm9IFI
