The skin is the largest organ in the body and has many functions. Skin grafts are the main method to restore a 3rd degree burnt or other wise damaged area of skin to its normal function . If the surface area that is very extensive there may not be sufficient areas available for grafting. It may be necessary to use donor skin grafts but as with other transplants there is always the problem of rejection due to the homograft rejection reaction.Adult stem cells are often used for such grafts as this procedure eliminates the need to use immunosuppressive drugs to suppress the rejections.
I wonder if scientists who are using such stem cells for other damaged organs like brain heart muscle etc. have tried smearing a suspension of stem cells for damaged areas of skin.. When I was a summer student working in the Pathology department of the U. of M medical school I did preliminary work in Whister rats where I removed postage size areas of skin , then smeared the area with a fibrin clot and followed that with smearing a trypsanized suspension of skin cells. As I recalled now - the experiments were done during the summer of my 3rd year in medicine . I believe it was successful.
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