New Delhi, May 02: British scientists have developed “living bandages,” made from a patient’s own cells, which speed healing for burns. “It is a convenient way of using the patient’s own cells to heal wounds,” Professor Sheila MacNeil, of the University of Sheffield, said. “This is a simple dressing to take lab-expanded cells and deliver them back to patients’ wounds.” 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 specialised discs in the laboratory. After the bandage’s been applied, the discs release the cells and prompt new layers of skin to grow. The bandage’s removed after the cells have migrated to the wound.
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.