New hope for the chronically wounded

A new surgical technique pioneered at the Fraunhofer Institute for Cell Therapy in Leipzig may allow for patients to receive grafted ‘artificial’ skin grown using their own cells.

The procedure, called the EpiDex® technique, has been developed with euroderm GmbH, and could replace traditional treatments which involve taking skin from another part of the patient’s body.
 
If successful, the new process would eliminate the additional scarring, with which patients suffer at the donor area (usually the thigh), but would still have the same chances of success for the graft taking.
 
“If we produce this skin using the recently approved EpiDex® technique instead, we can achieve the same chances of recovery without hurting the patient. Moreover, the artificial skin grows onto the wound without scarring,” commented Dr. Andreas Emmendörffer, managing director of euroderm GmbH. 

Outpatient procedure

An additional advantage is that the procedure can be performed on an outpatient basis. Within a few days, it should be possible to see if the graft has taken and – if successful – the new area of skin should be indistinguishable within 72 days.
 
EpiDex® works by extracting stem cells from a patient sample: “We pluck a few hairs off the back of the patient’s head and extract adult stem cells from their roots, which we then proliferate in a cell culture for about two weeks. Then we reduce the nutrient solution until it no longer covers the upper sides of the cells, exposing them to the surrounding air. The increased pressure exerted by the oxygen on the surfaces of the cells causes them to differentiate into skin cells,” explained Emmendörffer.

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