VATIS UPDATE Article

Biotech Company PolarityTE Inc., the United States, has successfully regenerated skin and stimulated hair growth in pigs with burns and abrasions, paving the way for a scientific breakthrough that could lead to the regeneration of fully functional human skin. PolarityTE’s patented approach to tissue engineering is designed to use a patient’s own healthy tissue to re-grow human skin for the treatment of burns and wounds.

“Current approaches to treat serious burns are ‘severely limited’ in their effectiveness and in some cases, are rather expensive,” said Denver Lough, at PolarityTE. Epicel, a skin graft widely used in burn units that is sold by Cambridge, Vericel Corp, the United States, does not result in fully thick and functional skin – which is PolarityTE’s objective. PolarityTE conducted its pre-clinical study on wounded pigs at an animal facility in Utah.

The use of therapy resulted in scar-less healing, growth of hair follicles, complete wound coverage and the progressive regeneration of all skin layers, the company said. As pig skin is more complex and robust than human skin, successful swine data is typically seen as a precursor to effectiveness in human trials. PolarityTE expects to begin a human trial later this year and the cell therapy could hit the market 12 to 18 months thereafter.