Seoul, South Korea (LifeNews.com) -- Patients with burns and other types of skin damage may be able to be healed with their own adult stem cells, as a result of a new breakthrough by South Korean doctors. The discovery is another example of the usefulness of the adult stem cells, cited by many as an alternative to embryonic stem cell research. A team of scientists at the Korea Institute of Radiological and Medical Sciences revealed the new technique of using stem cells to mass produce skin cells. Son Young-sook told the Korea Times, "We extracted skin stem cells from a burn patient's epidermis, cultured them and increased their number by 200 times outside his body in two weeks. Then we transplanted them back to the patient and got a satisfactory result," Son explained.
Cross-posted from Choose Life.
The new therapy allows skin damage patients another option in addition to conventional methods of transplanting skin cells and it cuts in half the number of surgeries required to do so. "In the past, we had to carry out two operations for a skin wound; first to implant collagen at the burned parts and again to transplant skin cells," Son said.
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