Swiss culture of life employs fetal tissue to heal children with burns

[BurtWorm]

Don't count on the US "culture of life" to do anything so evil.



http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2005/08/fetal_tissue_he.html


Fetal tissue heals burns
They've got a real culture of life in Switzerland. They're using cells from aborted fetuses to spare burned children the agony of skin grafts and scarring:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/17/AR2005081701777_pf.html

An experimental therapy that uses skin cells grown from an aborted fetus successfully healed severe burns in eight children, sparing them the need for skin grafts, according to a study published today.

The treatment led to the regrowth of essentially normal skin on second- and third-degree burns in about two weeks, according to the report by a Swiss research team. The scarring and tissue contraction seen after many burns did not occur, and dressing changes were easier and less painful, the researchers said.

The fetal tissue promotes growth of the patient's own skin cells rather than becoming incorporated into the recipient's skin as a true "graft." Further, it appears that a piece of fetal skin smaller than a postage stamp could be used to produce enough cells to treat hundreds of patients.

"The results were sort of unexpected. . . . These constructs seem to work as a biological Band-Aid, promoting spontaneous healing of the patient," said Patrick Hohlfeld of University Hospital of Lausanne, who was one of the researchers.

The study will appear in a future edition of the Lancet and was published online today. <...>


Would this kind of research be allowed in the United States? Could it be eligible for federal funding?

[BurtWorm]

1. kick

[BurtWorm]

2. The NY Times has a story on this as well.

Heads up. This will become controversial.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/18/science/18burn.html?pagewanted=print

Using human fetal cells, Swiss scientists have developed a new type of "biological bandage" for severe burns, a treatment that speeds and improves the healing process and may prove effective for other serious skin wounds, according to a preliminary study being published today.

But because the bandages are derived from the skin cells of aborted fetuses, the novel therapy is likely to generate controversy in countries like the United States and Italy, which restrict the use of human embryos in scientific research.

The research team, led by Dr. Patrick Hohlfeld at the University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, treated eight severely burned children using panels of artificial fetal skin, all grown from a postage-stamp-size sample of skin taken three years ago from a fetus aborted at 14 weeks.

Normally, to replace tissue severely damaged by burns, surgeons borrow skin from another part of the patient's body. But that skin regenerates poorly, in a painful and sometimes disfiguring process called grafting. The Swiss researchers had initially hoped that the layers of fetal skin cells might be a substitute graft material.