They demonstrate the effectiveness of the artificial skin designed by ibs.GRANADA researchers after implanting it in patients with large burns

Scientists from the Biosanitary Research Institute of Granada (ibs.GRANADA) and the University of Granada (UGR) have demonstrated the effectiveness and suitability of the artificial skin UGRSKIN, an advanced therapy medicine designed by them in 2012, which has shown a great utility for the treatment of severely burned patients, without generating any side effects or relevant complications.

The group of tissue engineering from ibs.GRANADA and the Department of Histology of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Granada, which is a pioneer in the design and manufacture of artificial human tissues, invented and published in 2012 an artificial skin model called UGRSKIN based on blood cells. human skin and natural biomaterials designed by the research group itself.

The group managed to demonstrate the effectiveness of this skin model in experimental animals and managed to develop all the quality controls necessary for the characterization of said model, according to the requirements of the different drug agencies.

Subsequently, after demonstrating the potential usefulness of the UGRSKIN model, the group managed, in close collaboration with the Andalusian Network for the Design and Translation of Advanced Therapies (RAdytTA) of the Government of Andalusia, to manufacture this artificial skin in pharmaceutical quality for use as an advanced therapy medicine in accordance with the regulations of the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), complying with all existing quality standards in Europe.

In this way, and once approved by the AEMPS, in 2016 the UGRSKIN artificial skin was used for the first time to treat a patient who had severe burns on 70% of her body surface in the reference Burn Unit of Andalusia. located in the Virgen del Rocío Hospital in Seville, with good results. Since then, a total of 15 patients (8 adults and 4 children) have been treated, with an overall survival close to 80%.

In a press conference held this morning at the Faculty of Medicine of the UGR, where this artificial skin was designed, the research team presented the follow-up and histological analysis of the first 12 patients treated with the UGRSKIN product, which has given place to the scientific article titled “Histological assessment of nanostructured fibrin-agarose skin substitutes grafted in burnt patients. “A time-course study”, published in the high impact magazine Bioengineering and Translational medicine.

“Once implanted, the UGRSKIN model quickly integrated into the patient's tissue, showing an epidermis very similar to the normal human epidermis from the first moments which, therefore, contributes to the protection of the patient against possible external pathogens. Likewise, the dermis of the implanted tissue was able to progressively remodel until it became histologically analogous to the normal dermis from the second month of development of the implant," highlighted Professor Miguel Alaminos.

The treatment of severely burned patients represents a major health challenge. Despite the development of current medicine, the survival of patients who suffer deep burns over large areas of their body is still very poor, so it is necessary to develop new, truly effective treatments for these cases, such as artificial skin designed in UGR.

The preliminary results of the project that was presented today at the University of Granada were communicated in international forums in Berlin, Zurich, Nantes and Shanghai. The next meeting of the European Skin Tissue Engineering Network for major burns (ESEN) will be organized in Granada in June 2024 by the Tissue Engineering research group as a consequence of this achievement.

Patients treated with UGRSKIN artificial skin have not only managed to improve their quality of life, but some of them have managed to overcome challenges and difficulties such as climbing high mountains and high-effort sports competitions.

Not in vain, this morning's press conference (which was chaired by the rector of the UGR, Pedro Mercado) was attended by Álvaro Trigo Puig, one of the patients who had artificial skin implanted in 2018.

Álvaro is a 28-year-old young man from Madrid who in 2018 suffered burns on 63 percent of his skin after a serious fire. Due to his injuries, he was in a coma for 10 days and was admitted to the Virgen del Rocío hospital in Seville for four months.

After implanting the artificial skin designed at the UGR, Álvaro Trigo has organized and carried out long-distance sports solidarity projects. Among others, he has climbed Kilimanjaro and Mont Blanc; I swam the Strait of Gibraltar and the journey between Formentera and Ibiza or swam from the Cies Islands to Vigo with my feet chained.