SYDNEY: Discarded human skin can be
used to test new drugs and cosmetics, a researcher has found, sparing animals
much agony in test laboratories.
Zee Upton, a senior researcher at
the Queensland Institute of Technology, said it was originally developed for use
in her research into wound healing but could be used to test new
products.
"Most people would go to rats and mice for lab testing, but
when it comes to testing new wound therapies or products and cosmetics that go
on human skin, pig skin is our closest alternative and is most often used," she
said.
"However, this is expensive, the test numbers are limited and
of course there are ethical problems to consider, so using a human skin
equivalent will reduce this use and possibly give more accurate
results.
"Obviously, the ultimate goal is for labs to avoid having to
use animals altogether eventually."
She said it could also be a
useful finding because new legislation coming in next year states that any
consumer item using animal products or tested on animals will not be allowed to
be exported to the European Union.
She said the human skin
equivalent, which was a finalist in this year's Museum of Australia's Eureka
Prize for "Research that Contributes to Animal Protection", would be on display
at Show Some Skin, a science exhibition.
"It is showing the model we
use, explaining how we go about making it and how these skin equivalents are
used to guide and minimise the use of animals when we develop new wound healing
therapies," she said.
"We collect skin donated by consenting patients
who have had surgery resulting in a surgical off-cut, and the skin is then
processed in our laboratory to isolate the cells; once they are growing
healthily again, we can bring them back together and create the multi-component
skin equivalent in the lab.
"So we deconstruct the skin and its cells
and then reconstruct them - we cannot use the skin off-cuts themselves, as those
cells are dying and we need to get the cells back to a state where are growing
healthily again," she said.