Synthetic Skin From Baby Foreskins

Scientists are growing human skin out of harvested foreskins in order to reduce the need to use animals to test drugs and cosmetics.

The foreskin used for the process is only taken from boys up to the age of four. “The older skin is, the worse the cells function,” explained Andreas Traube, an engineer at the institute's department of production technology and automation. “It is also important that the cells we use are coming from a uniform source," said Traube. "This avoids discrepancies in the production of the new skin." The equipment developed by the Fraunhofer team can extract between three to 10 million cells from a single foreskin. In the incubator these cells then multiply hundreds of times. The brand new skin cells are mixed with collagen and connective tissue, which then becomes ‘proper’ skin, measuring up to five millimetres in thickness. The whole process can take up to six weeks, but according to Traube, “We can’t use the machine to speed up the process; biology needs time to take its course.”

How will the "intactivists" feel about this? (Tipped by JMG reader Kevin)