A Quebec research team is growing skin substitutes from cells taken from soldiers severely burned in the deadly training fire at CFB Wainwright, according to reporting by CBC’s Karen Pauls.

Biopsies have been taken from several hospitalized soldiers, and their cells are growing in the laboratory led by Véronique Moulin at the CHU de Québec–Université Laval research centre. The process is nearing the end of clinical trials.

The fire at the Alberta base killed four soldiers and sent dozens more to hospital with severe burns, CBC reported. As of Nov. 4, the Canadian Armed Forces said 25 soldiers remained in hospital. Four had been moved to facilities in British Columbia and Ontario to continue treatment closer to their families and home communities.

Moulin’s technique begins with a toonie-sized sample of a patient’s healthy skin. Cells extracted from it are encouraged to produce tissue containing both the dermis and epidermis, the two main skin layers.

The substitute lacks pigment and sweat glands, but Moulin said it can help when burns cover too much of the body for doctors to harvest enough healthy skin for grafts.

According to Moulin, clinical data from 50 Canadian burn patients treated since 2005 show that the tissue is not rejected, remains flexible and grows with the patient, reducing scarring and the need for repeated surgeries.

Producing it takes time. The first batch requires up to eight weeks and provides only enough tissue to cover part of a torso. Moulin said her laboratory is already operating at capacity, although further batches can be supplied every two weeks after the first.

CBC also highlighted related research at the University of Manitoba. Researchers there are developing skin substitutes designed to reproduce features including blood vessels, nerves and different skin colours. One version is being prepared for animal testing and has not yet reached human clinical trials.

A separate wound-monitoring membrane changes from yellow to green when it encounters bacteria and their enzymes. Researcher Farinaz Jonidi Shariatzadeh told CBC that an American medical technology company has licensed it and begun clinical trials.

These projects are at different stages of development; the Quebec team’s patient-derived skin tissue is the technology currently being prepared for the injured soldiers.

Sources