words

Not new however some that are new here might like to see the words of Dr Greenwood on BTM

http://urethaneblog.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/05/polyurethane-artificial-skin.html

Polyurethane Artificial Skin
New artificial skin could help healing

By Sarah Malik
From: AAP
May 09, 2011 3:51PM

RESEARCHERS are developing technology that could make healing faster for burns victims by using artificial skin grown from their own cells in a cheaper and more effective way than current models.

Director of the Adult Burn service at Royal Adelaide Hospital John Greenwood has been working with medical technology company PolyNovo Biomaterials to develop a synthetic material Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM) since 2004.

So far the BTM alone has successfully sealed wounds on pigs and trials will next test whether it heals pig burns when their cells are added to grow the artificial skin.

"It's based on a biodegradable polyurethane - it's a plastic that acts as a scaffold to allow us to grow the patient's cells into," Dr Greenwood told AAP today.

If successful in pig and then human trials, it could potentially replace painful skin grafts, which involve repeatedly harvesting burns victims' good skin to treat burns.

The BTM could also be applied to stabilise wounds and minimise drying, contraction and scarring until skin grafts or cultured skin are available and can be applied.

"We're not going to leave half of their body covered in scars that we've created (in order) to repair the other half of their body that they've injured," Dr Greenwood said.

"You'd be cursing me because your leg hurts or your back hurts or wherever I took that skin graft from is excruciating.

"So the cultured skin substitute is going to abolish the skin graft."

Theoretically, one sample of 10cm by 10cm skin from a patient could be woven into a BTM polymer scaffold to grow sheets of artificial skin within 21 days.

BTM polymer has already been trialled in pigs to seal wounds, acting as a potential replacement for Integra, a cow-derived collagen product currently used to hold wounds before skin grafts are applied.

"When we put that (BTM) onto wounds on pigs it resisted the contracting forces of the body and was far more robust to infection than the material we compared it against," he said.

"We've proven that BTM works... it would work on humans in an identical way."

BTM was also cheaper to produce and easier to store than Integra, he said.

"It (BTM) is better at stopping contraction (of the skin) and better at stopping infections than Integra, which is what we use at the moment," Dr Greenwood said.

"This material is designed by myself and the scientists at PolyNovo to be safe and effective, to be dry packed, it doesn't need any special storage... it can be used at a global level."

Dr Greenwood said use of plain BTM, without human cells in it, could begin by the end of the year if permission is given for a human trial.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/new-artificial-skin-could-help-healing/story-e6frf7jx-1226052675163

Posted at 09:15 AM in Technology | Permalink
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