Skin Field

Everyone at some point has experienced minor skin injuries such as falling down and skinning a knee or cutting a fingertip with a kitchen knife. In most cases, these will heal in a few days. Of all the tissues in the human body, the skin is said to have the great regenerative powers. However, if there is loss of a large area of skin, such as in a major injury or burn, the body's own regenerative powers are inadequate to heal it, and the patient's life is endangered.
Well then, how should extensive skin loss be treated? One way is to cover the exposed area with skin from an animal or another person to replace the patient's own skin. However, skin from an animal or other person is ultimately recognized as foreign matter by the body, leading to a rejection reaction. For this reason, it is optimal to use the patient's own skin. However, if extensive skin loss has occurred, it may not be possible to obtain a sufficient area of normal skin with which to perform a skin graft.
Cultured epidermal autograph technology was developed to get around this problem. Here epidermal cells with superior proliferative capacity are harvested from normal skin and artificially cultured to form skin-like sheets of living cells that can be grafted on to the affected area. By grafting cultured epidermis on to the affected area, it is possible to regenerate epidermis that functions as a barrier to hold in moisture and shield against infection.