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Skin
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The skin covers the human body to both provide protection and receive stimuli from the environment.
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Artificial Skin
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When you get a small wound, the skin heals rather quickly. When a whole area of skin is ripped away, there is nothing to keep infection out and fluids in. If the lower layer of skin is destroyed, the cells cannot grow and move up to the surface any more.
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To keep the last two consequences from occurring, something must be done to cover the area where skin once was. When there is enough skin left on a patient's body, an autograft is used. This means the patient's own skin is used to cover the exposed areas. Another option was using dead bodies for skin donations. Sometimes this skin was even gotten from animals. This is called an allograft.
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Dr. Gregory Gallico III and Dr. Howard Green used a new type of allograft in 1983. They took patches of skin from burn victims and put them in enzymes. The enzymes separated the cells and then growth stimulants were added. At the end of twenty days, the small sample of skin would be large enough to cover little patches of the burn victims' bodies. The body doesn't reject this new skin, but it is not as good as real skin because it has no sweat glands or hair follicles.
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Dr. John Burke and Dr. Ioannis Yannas used a different approach in this matter. Skin is taken from the unburned area of the patient's body. It is spun around to bring the youngest cells to the top near a membrane. This membrane is placed next to the burn and in two weeks, new skin is grown. This means, the patient is growing his or her own skin!
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In 1997, a new synthetic product called Dermagraft-TC became available. Dermagraft-TC is made of actual human skin cells. According to IDEO, the maker of Demgraft-TC, Dermagraft-TC is a temporary cover to promote faster healing in burn patients without the pain and complexity involved in current treatment programs
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