Main image via The Washington Post
Doctors in Germany have successfully saved a seven-year-old boy’s life using skin grafts made with genetically modified stem cells.
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The boy was suffering from a genetic disorder that made his skin so fragile that even minor friction could cause it to break. When he was brought into the hospital in 2015, he had completely lost 60% of the skin in his body, and was fighting off infection.
The procedure used to save the child was “highly experimental” – it had only ever been used twice before on small parts of the body.
A small, unaffected patch of stem cells from the boy was genetically modified to remove the problematic gene. These stem cells then grew sheets of new skin that were then grafted onto 80% of the child’s body.
In the two years following the procedure, the child’s recovery has been described as “stunning”. The regenerated skin “looks basically normal” and is expected to last “basically the life of the patient”.
The procedure may have saved the life of this child, but it raises more questions in the medical world – namely, whether such a procedure could be successful on adults, and whether there could be any adverse long-term effects.
Article via The Washington Post.
