Berlin, November 09 (QNA) - A child with a rare disorder has had 80% of his skin replaced with genetically modified tissue, scientists reported in the journal Nature.
Hassan was suffering from junctional epidermolysis bullosa. Young patients are also known as "butterfly children," as this genetic disorder makes their skin extremely fragile, leading to painful blisters and chronic wounds.
"He was the first person to receive this treatment," said Tobias Hirsch of the Bergmannsheil clinic in Bochum, who performed the surgery.
The transplant was carried out nearly two years ago, when Hassan was seven.
The boy had been admitted to a paedriatic clinic in the German city of Bochum with a life-treatening skin infection. Sixty per cent of his skin had already been destroyed.
Looking for experimental therapies, his doctors turned to the Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Modena University in Italy, which had previously used gene therapy for such patients, but only on small patches of skin, according to the (dpa).
The Italian experts extracted stem cells from Hassan's skin and injected them with a healthy variant of the gene that causes his disorder. Using methods that were developed in Modena and at the Salzburg University Clinic, they grew 0.85 square metres of skin tissue, which was then transplanted in three surgeries.
Since the operation, Hassan's skin has become stable, and he has been able to go to school and play football, according to his doctors.
"We must wait and see whether it will continue to go well. Time will tell," surgeon Hirsch cautioned. (QNA)