The Region - News from Sept. 5, 1986

A new way to clone skin could boost the survival chances of severely burned victims and reduce scarring from the wounds, researchers said. The treatment has been approved for experimental use at the University of California, San Diego, Medical Center. The project, to begin in a few weeks, will be led by Dr. John Hansbrough, director of the burn center, and Steven Boyce, a biologist who developed the technique. Boyce said doctors are expected to use the treatment at first on people burned over a small portion of their body. The process involves removing a section of undamaged skin from a patient, culturing it in a special medium and then creating sheets of new skin for use in grafts on the patient. Eventually, physicians said, they expect the process to be a life-saving therapy for people with burns over major portions of their bodies. Since the newly grown skin is derived from the individual burned, problems of rejection and infection should be minimal, researchers said.