AFIRM, the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine,
has some lofty, but important goals. As covered by DailyTech previously,
the goal of the Army-led organization is to help
and heal our wounded fighting men and women, allowing them to return to the
productive lives they gave to their country. Some of the current goals, limb
regeneration especially, may seem lofty, but such things rarely stand in the
way of human determination for long.
Some of the stem cell research done by AFIRM members is already showing
promising results. Stephen Badylak, a pathologist at the McGowan Institute
for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh's announcement last
year that a magical “pixie dust,” created from pig bladders, regrew the severed
fingertips of two patients left a mark in the medical community. The dust
contains molecules that signal growth factors, overriding the typical scar
tissue response when a limb is severed. In just six weeks, the fingertips grew
back completely, fingernails included. Badylak is presently doing further
research into regrowing more complicated extremities such as arms and legs.
Anthony Atala, a Wake Forest University tissue engineer, has developed an ink
jet printer capable of printing entire organs, one layer of cells at a time.
The special printer uses cartridges filled with a mix of tissue types, growth
factors and nutrients. He has already successfully printed a rat heart, and
plans to have a portable model developed in the next five years that can print
skin tissue directly onto flesh wounds in battlefield hospitals.
The newest development in progress by AFIRM is nothing less than spray-on skin.
The process involves harvesting cells known as keratinocytes from a patient's
own skin. Keratinocytes are immature skin cells, which the body constantly
produces to create new skin tissue as surface tissue dies. The cells are put
into a solution which is then sprayed over a wound.
Clinical trials with the process involved 16 burn patients and showed extremely
promising results. Not only did the cells promote growth in the wounds, the
recovery time was similar to skin grafting, the standard approach to burn
repairs, but without the complications or aesthetic scarring involved.
While the $250 million project is aimed at helping our military men and women,
the results of the hard work by AFIRM members will no doubt spill over into
civilian medicine, much the way most military technology eventually does. If
doctors can print new organs and skin in the battlefield, they can do it at
accident scenes on domestic soil. AFIRM may enable one of the most significant
leaps in regenerative medicine in history, all thanks to stem cells of various
construction and the human desire to help those who have helped and protected
us.