Utah Study Shows Progress in Spray-On Stem Cell Healing Tech
From minor to major lacerations, abrasions, and burns, the typical answer is to sterilize it, and wrap it in a bandage. While antiseptics have improved immensely (from near non-existence little more than a century ago), the bandage itself has remained fairly unchanged.
However, doctors at the University of Utah’s Burn Care center have been developing an alternative to the cloth bandage. Instead, they are utilizing stem cells—the differentiable generic cells that can replace any tissue in the body. Stem cells failure in becoming an the 21st century panacea is mostly due to not to their limitations, but our inability to effectively apply them where they need to be. In this new method, the team at Utah creates a cocktail of the body’s own healing agents, and sprays them directly on the wound in a regenerative mist.
Combining the patient’s own platelet cells and progenitor cells, and adding calcium and thrombin, the solution can effectively treat topical burns. In tests, the spray proved to be effective in treating small burns, and seemed to increase the success rate of skin grafts.
I found this article interesting because I like old-fashion technologies to be improved upon. Skin wounds heal so slowly because getting regenerative material to the necessary location is non-specific, and inefficient. The regenerative agents in the blood stream must notice the damage as they pass by, and push their way through many layers of cells to reach the wounded location. This method applies the healing agents directly to the point of interest, which should help protect the wound and allow it to heal faster. This project isn’t too far along; only treating small burns, and not covering bleeding wound, but they have ambition for larger wounds. Burn applications are the best development here at home, because burns are least helped by bandaging and the slowest to be healed by the body. But a universal, regenerative bandage of skin could have untold applications in the military, where care needs to be quick, efficient, and get people back on their feet.
Source: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=13424065&nid=148
However, doctors at the University of Utah’s Burn Care center have been developing an alternative to the cloth bandage. Instead, they are utilizing stem cells—the differentiable generic cells that can replace any tissue in the body. Stem cells failure in becoming an the 21st century panacea is mostly due to not to their limitations, but our inability to effectively apply them where they need to be. In this new method, the team at Utah creates a cocktail of the body’s own healing agents, and sprays them directly on the wound in a regenerative mist.
Combining the patient’s own platelet cells and progenitor cells, and adding calcium and thrombin, the solution can effectively treat topical burns. In tests, the spray proved to be effective in treating small burns, and seemed to increase the success rate of skin grafts.
I found this article interesting because I like old-fashion technologies to be improved upon. Skin wounds heal so slowly because getting regenerative material to the necessary location is non-specific, and inefficient. The regenerative agents in the blood stream must notice the damage as they pass by, and push their way through many layers of cells to reach the wounded location. This method applies the healing agents directly to the point of interest, which should help protect the wound and allow it to heal faster. This project isn’t too far along; only treating small burns, and not covering bleeding wound, but they have ambition for larger wounds. Burn applications are the best development here at home, because burns are least helped by bandaging and the slowest to be healed by the body. But a universal, regenerative bandage of skin could have untold applications in the military, where care needs to be quick, efficient, and get people back on their feet.
Source: http://www.ksl.com/?sid=13424065&nid=148
posted by Brian Moore at 12:00 PM
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