- LONDON (Reuters) -- British
scientists have developed "living bandages," made from a patient's
own cells, which speed healing for burns and diabetes sufferers.
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- The biological bandages, launched at the British Burns
Association meeting on Tuesday, have been used successfully on patients
with severe burns and diabetics with chronic wounds.
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- "It is a convenient way of using the patient's own
cells to heal wounds," Professor Sheila MacNeil, of the University
of Sheffield, said in an interview.
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- "This is a simple dressing to take laboratory-expanded
cells and deliver them back to patients' wounds."
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- MacNeil, who developed the bandages called Myskin with
her Sheffield colleague Professor Robert Short, said the bandages can be
placed on wounds five to seven days after a sample of cells has been taken
from the patient and grown on specialized discs in the laboratory.
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- After the bandage has been applied to the wound, the
discs release the cells and prompt new layers of skin to grow in the damaged
areas. The bandage is removed after the cells have migrated to the wound.
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- Doctors have been using patients' own cells to heal wounds
for years. Myskin, which was developed after 10 years of research, takes
the technique further because the cells are grown on the bandage surface
and it is put directly on to the patient's wound.
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- "It makes it simpler all round," said MacNeil.
"You can get a much faster healing than you would have done without
them."
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- Myskin has been successfully used on a young boy suffering
burns to his legs and chest from a bonfire accident, a 28-year-old with
similar injuries and an 80-year-old man who had been badly burned on his
face and body.
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- There are around 1,000 severe burn injuries in Britain
each year.
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- The biological bandages have also helped to heal chronic
wounds from persistent ulcers in diabetes patients. In Britain alone, three
million people suffer from chronic wounds and 5,000 foot or toe amputations
are performed on diabetics because of ulcerous wounds.
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- MacNeil said Myskin also speeds the healing of donor
sites where skin grafts are taken to replace burned skin.
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