Is It Possible To Grow Skin In A Test Tube?

This was impossible a few years ago, but it is perfectly possible now to produce artificial skin in the laboratory. The process of producing artificial skin is done in flat culture plates rather than test tubes.

Tissue culture techniques have been developed to enable scientists to use skin cells from a burn victim to seed special culture dishes. The nutrient medium gives the cells the right balance of sugars, amino acids and other chemicals to start dividing actively.

If a piece of skin just 4 square centimetres in area is used, it is possible to grow enough artificial skin to cover the body of an average adult in just three weeks. This is a great step forward for burns victims who previously had to have either pig skin coverings temporarily or skin grafts from other parts of their body to have any hope of survival.