New skin 'grown within minutes'

Source: BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4342204.stm

New tissue 'grown within minutes'


UK scientists say they can cut the time it takes to grow new tissue
from days to minutes.

The lengthy process can be accelerated by simply removing the water
present in the starting material, the University College London team
discovered.

Following such shrinkage by a factor of at least 100, tissues could
be created in 35 minutes.

This speed may one day allow doctors to make tissue implants at the
bedside, Advanced Functional Materials reports.

The next stage is to test whether this method could help repair
injured tissues
Professor Robert Brown

Currently, scientists make tissues to be used for operations such as
skin grafts by building a scaffold of cells that grow in the lab.

However, it can take between one and 12 weeks to grow enough of the
required tissue for the surgery.

Professor Robert Brown and colleagues investigated whether they could
cut this time down.

They experimented on making a tissue called collagen, which acts as a
structural support for skin, bones and tendons.

Spare parts fast

Sucking out the water using a technique called plastic compression
meant they could make the collagen in just over half an hour.

The tissue was not only made much faster than that made in the
conventional tissue engineering way, it also appeared to be stronger,
more like real collagen.

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The method has great potential
Professor Tim Hardingham from the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering
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Professor Brown said: "Our method offers a simple and controllable
means of quickly engineering tissue structures.

"The next stage is to test whether this method could help repair
injured tissues.

"Ultimately, the goal is to design a rapid, inexpensive, automatic
process for creating strong tissues which could supply hospital
surgical units with a tool kit of spare parts for reconstructive surgery.

"The speed and control it offers means that our method could one day
be used to produce implant tissue at the bedside or in the operating theatre."

Professor Tim Hardingham, from the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering,
said: "The method has great potential for further development in
clinical applications of tissue repair where immediate mechanical
strength is required.

"Its success in these applications will depend on how it is survives
in the body and how it is remodelled by natural body processes.

"It also needs to be known whether it can act as a template that is
replaced by normal functional tissue. The present work provides a
good experimental basis for these further studies."