Chinese Invention May Heal Burn ScarsThere's now less need to worry about scars left on your skin after being burned.Professor Xu Rongxiang, chairman of China National Burns Association (West-East) and his team's decade-long efforts have led to a new method on skin regeneration. The damaged skin is actually healed with the help of the professor's recently developed product, which uses traditional Chinese medicine. So far more than 10 badly burned patients with more than 90 per cent of their total body surface area and deep burns have been healed with the new treatment. Skin is the largest organ of the human body. In the past, once it was burned, wounds usually healed with scarring because the skin could not repair itself properly. Wounds that did not heal were operated on and then the patient had to have skin grafting, which often led to disfigurement. Recently Xu proved that after being burned, the human body instinctively uses any remaining tissue to regenerate stem cells, which then somehow adjust themselves to lead to new skin tissue. Human stem cells are those that can divide and are now used to regenerate skin and it is hoped that later these cells can be used to regenerate other human organs. There are two types of human stem cell. One is the embryo stem cell which can directly clone a human or animal and the other is the so-called ''pluripotent'' stem cell which is capable of helping repair skin and other damaged organs. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://www.peopledaily.com.cn/english/ |