Stem cell initiative is set to aid wounded

Stars and Stripes ^ | 19 April 2008 | By Lisa Burgess

[shrinkermd]

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Pentagon is launching a multimillion dollar initiative to regrow skin, muscles, ears, noses and even new limbs for wounded servicemembers, using their own stem cells.

The Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine, or AFIRM, is a five-year, Army-led cooperative program using cutting-edge stem cell research to treat badly wounded servicemembers.

“You often hear people talking about a conflict having a ‘signature wound,’” Lt. Gen. Eric B. Schoomaker, the Army’s surgeon general, told reporters at a Thursday news conference announcing the new institute. “Well, the signature weapon of this war is blast.”

Some of AFIRM’s earliest work will involve growing new skin and muscle tissue for troops who have been burned in explosions, as well as new noses and ears, Schoomaker said.

With 82 percent of all combat-wounded members having injuries to the extremities and 30 percent having facial wounds, “we’ve been wrestling with how to treat the many problems,” Schoomaker said.

The key to regenerative medicine is stem cells — cells that are not preprogrammed to become a certain organ or kind of tissue but have the potential to become any kind of cell.

[Bahbah]

The process involves using the Marine’s stem cells to coat a three-dimensional, surgical-grade silicon “scaffolding” of his nose and placing it in a sterile ovenlike structure that duplicates the warmth and moisture of the human body to incubate for a couple of weeks. Inside the oven, the cells continue to generate and fix themselves over and into the mold.

“It’s like baking a cake,” Schoomaker explained.

When that process is complete, “you can plant that (regenerated tissue) back into the same patient, thus avoiding rejection,” Atala said.

Amazing this occurs even though President Bush has outlawed science. /s