Scientists in the US have developed a new technique that sprays a burn patient's own cells on the burn to help regenerate the skin and drastically reduce recovery time. The gun has been under development since 2008 and has now been used to successfully treat more than a dozen patients.

Scientists have been able to regenerate skin in the laboratory for decades, but the process takes two to three weeks and the sheets of skin produced are fragile. When grafted on, blisters can form beneath it due to secretions, and can push up against the sheet and damage it.

In a process taking only an hour and a half in total, a biopsy is taken from the patient’s undamaged skin and then healthy stem cells are isolated from the biopsy and an aqueous solution containing the cells is sprayed on the burn.

After treatment the wound heals in just days, when it would have taken weeks to heal using traditional treatments.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2011-02-skin-cell-gun-drastically.html#jCp

More information: www.mirm.pitt.edu/news/article.asp?qEmpID=614