For deep burns, which cannot heal spontaneously, reconstruction of the skin is done by grafts. So, doctors take healthy skin from the patient and then place it on burned areas. This is called autograft. When healthy skin is not enough, surgeons resort to harvesting skin cells, which are then cultured in the laboratory, to produce fragments of skin for grafting. In this case, we speak of culture transplant, according to the Romand Burn Center of the Vaudois University Hospital (Switzerland).
Healthy skin: grafts containing corrections of genetic mutations
Recently, scientists from Nagoya University (Japan) showed that this technique, namely the transplantation of genetically healthy skin onto damaged areas, could make it possible to treat rare skin diseases, such as epidermolytic ichthyosis and epidermolytic ichthyosis. confetti ichthyosis. These incurable pathologies are caused by mutations in one of the two genes that produce keratin in the skin, KRT1 or KRT10. As a reminder, keratin is important for maintaining the integrity of the skin. These mutations therefore lead to fragility of the skin which presents blisters and forms thick and scaly plaques.
In order to achieve this discovery, the researchers carried out a study, the results of which were published in the journal British Journal of Dermatology. As part of the research, the team assessed the feasibility of transplanting cultured epidermal autografts. They made grafts from spots resulting from revertant somatic recombination. This is a process by which spontaneous genetic changes correct mutations by modifying the genes causing the skin condition. In this case, the areas affected by these two skin conditions become healthy again.
No recurrence of ichthyosis in two patients four weeks after transplantation
For the purposes of the study, the authors grafted skin cells lacking the keratin mutation onto the patients’ scaling lesions. Four weeks after transplantation, two of the patients showed no recurrence of ichthyosis in the entire treated area, while the third showed no recurrence in more than a third (39.52%) of the injured area. .
Despite the initial success, 24 weeks after transplantation, all three patients experienced some recurrence of ichthyosis on the transplant areas. The researchers concluded that “The best use of this technique is to alleviate symptoms when the disease is severe and to treat local symptoms of ichthyosis in specific regions that affect quality of life.”
