The scientist created artificial skin from algae

03/15/2017

Any artificial skin designed for medical purposes has one major drawback - the inability to supply tissues with oxygen.

Professor Thomas Egana from the Catholic University of Chile Santiago (Santiago’s Catholic University of Chile) found an unusual approach to solving this problem. He created the skin from microalgae, which can produce oxygen through photosynthesis. In addition, if plants are genetically modified, they will be able to supply antibiotics and other medicinal substances into cells and tissues. Microalgae in artificial skin live up to ten days, at this time the graft has time to settle down and loses its green color. A scientist can not yet say how long artificial skin will live without oxygen. At present, experiments were conducted only on animals; it is planned to test new transplant material in humans in 2017.

The invention has received high praise from a plastic surgeon from Belgium Heidi Debelz . She noted that the materials that exist today make it difficult for the tissues to get oxygen and nutrients, and the new development does not have such disadvantages. This makes it possible to use algae skin to treat wounds and burns. It does not interfere with the nutrition of tissues and perfectly protects them from infections. Green skin has many prospects for use.

Oxygen is required for various processes in the body. Therefore, this technology can be used to treat many diseases. Algae skin can be used for transplantation, for the treatment of burns, tumors and tissue regeneration.

Valeria Sokolova, news editor