Lab grows artificial skin for first time

A team of scientists from the UK and US has developed the first ever lab-grown epidermis - the outermost skin layer - with a functional barrier similar to real skin.

The artificial epidermis, which forms a protective interface between the body and its external environment, was grown from human pluripotent stem cells, and is designed to offer an alternative lab model for testing drugs and cosmetics, scientists have said.

Our new method can be used to grow much greater quantities of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents

Dr Dusko LLic

Dr Dusko Ilic, leader of the team at King’s College London, said: “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.”

Until now, tissue engineers have struggled to grow epidermis with the functional barrier necessary in drug testing, and have also been prohibited by the number of cells that can be grown from a single skin biopsy sample in a lab environment.

Now however, UK and US scientists have demonstrated the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) to produce an unlimited supply of pure keratinocytes.

These keratinocytes were then used to manufacture 3D epidermal equivalents in a high-to-low humidity environment to build a functional permeability barrier.

King’s College London and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center (SFVAMC) team leader Dr Theodora Mauro said: “The ability to obtain an unlimited number of genetically identical units can be used to study a range of conditions where the skin’s barrier is defective due to mutations in genes involved in skin barrier formation, such as atopic dermatitis.

“We can use this model to study how the skin barrier develops normally, how the barrier is impaired in different diseases and how we can stimulate its repair and recovery.”