14 DAY TRIAL // Scientists at the I-STEM Institute have recently announced the development of a new type of artificial skin cells, which was obtained directly from human embryonic stem cells. In a paper published in the November 21 issue of the scientific journal Lancet, the team reports that the entire epidermis was created using hESC only, which is something that had never been accomplished before, e ! Science News reports. The new investigation could lead to numerous uses for these cells in the near future, but especially in emergency rooms, when it comes to treating patients with severe burns.
“Our team is currently the only one to have succeeded in finalizing a protocol making it possible to transform human embryonic stem cells into a pure and homogeneous population of keratinocytes able to reconstitute a whole epidermis both in vitro and in vivo,” the Director of I-STEM, Marc Peschanski, says. “For more than 25 years we have known how to make epidermis with skin stem cells and skin grafts are made in particular for victims of third degree burns. The keratinocytes obtained from human embryonic stem cells therefore have an immediate clinical application. We are now therefore seeking how, in concrete terms, to pass to man,” Christine Baldeschi, the team leader of the new study, adds.
Keratinocytes are, essentially, skin stem cells that are in charge of constantly regenerating the skin. Obtaining them was therefore the most important step of the entire process. But the thing is that the research team basically had to find a way of coercing hESC to turn into life-like keratinocytes, without any side-effects. “It is these cells that interest us as they are the only cells capable of recreating all the layers of the human epidermis,” Baldeschi says. In the end, the team was successful in creating basic skin cells that exhibited all major characteristics of naturally occurring ones, such as self-renewal, stratification and final differentiation properties.
The I-STEM team is just one in the 28 in France that have received the special permit required to operate with this type of stem cells. Taking after the ultra-fundamentalist, religiously fanatic views of former US President George W. Bush, the French government, no less bright, also banned hESC research, and only grants special dispensations to specific groups, after the goals of the investigations are analyzed. This is like cutting the branch from under our feet. Stem-cell research is one of the most promising fields in medicine today, yet the scientific community has to stand by and watch as conservative, far-right and extremist religious groups take over politics.