Scientists Grow Human Skin Layer in the Lab

Posted on April 25, 2014

A team of scientists led by researchers at King's College London (KCL) and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) have grown the first lab-grown human epidermis. The epidermis is the outermost layer of the skin. It was grown from human stem cells. BBC News reports that the skin cells were grown in a low humidity environment. This helped the scientists grow the epidermis with its protective barrier intact. The Independent reports that tissue engineers have struggled to grow the epidermis with its protective barrier in the past.

The scientists found a strong comparison between their lab-grown skin and human skin. The researchers say in a release, "A comparison of epidermal equivalents generated from iPSC, hESC and primary human keratinocytes (skin cells) from skin biopsies showed no significant difference in their structural or functional properties compared with the outermost layer of normal human skin."

The scientists also say the lab skin could help replace animals in drug and cosmetics testings.

Dr Dusko Ilic, leader of the team at King's College London, says in a statement, "Our new method can be used to grow much greater quantities of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents, and thus could be scaled up for commercial testing of drugs and cosmetics. Human epidermal equivalents representing different types of skin could also be grown, depending on the source of the stem cells used, and could thus be tailored to study a range of skin conditions and sensitivities in different populations."

A research paper was published here in the journal, Stem Cell Reports.

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