This research, which was just published in the journal Science Signaling, investigates the process through which normal cells transform into cancerous ones.
Under typical conditions, the cells of your skin will not randomly begin to infiltrate the hypodermis and create havoc there. Instead, they will develop a fresh covering of skin on their bodies. However, as cancer cells begin to form, normal skin cells no longer recognize the boundaries between the different layers of skin and begin to invade one another. This kind of development is known as invasive growth.
The researchers in the current study employed synthetic human skin cells that had been subjected to genetic engineering to create the artificial skin that they used in their experiment. Collagenous subcutaneous tissue provides the foundation for the production of skin cells. Because of this, the cells develop in layers, much like the skin of a real person.
In contrast to models using mice, the “skin model,” which is just another term for artificial skin, enables researchers to introduce artificial genetic modifications in a reasonably expedient manner. These changes provide researchers insight into the processes that support the growth and regeneration of the skin.
In this manner, they are also able to replicate and track the progress of various skin problems in addition to only cancer of the skin. Scientists are able to circumvent the potentially challenging impediment of determining whether or not the outcomes of experiments conducted on mouse models may be translated to human tissue because they use fake human skin. In the majority of studies of this kind that were conducted in the past, researchers employed mice as models. Instead, they are able to come to the conclusion that these compounds are most likely safe to use and have the potential to be effective in practice due to the fact that artificial skin brings us closer to the human experience.
The researchers developed an artificial skin that was similar to the skin that was used to test cosmetics in the European Union, which outlawed the testing of cosmetics on animals in 2004. Hans Wandall notes that the use of artificial skin prevents the researchers from determining how a medicine would affect the creature as a whole. Since the middle of the 1980s, cosmetics businesses have been using skin models much like the one that is being utilized here.
