New Delhi, November 4 (IANS). Swiss scientists have developed 3-D cell models using lip cells for the first time, which could lead to new technologies to treat injuries and infections.
Until now, models made from lip cells were not available, because lip cells work differently from other skin cells.
Dr. Martin Dagen of Bern University, Switzerland says, “Lips are an important part of our face. Any problem on it can affect the beauty of the face. But till now there is no model for treatment based on lip cells. Was.”
To overcome this shortcoming, scientists adopted new techniques to work on donated lip cells, so that 3-D models of lips could be prepared for clinical testing in the laboratory.
For this research, scientists took skin cells from two patients – one patient who had an injury to his lip, and the other whose lip was amputated. Next, they used a special genetic technique to extend the life cycle of the cells, allowing them to function longer.
The new cells were also tested to make sure they functioned just like normal lip cells, and had no genetic abnormalities. Additionally, these cells were also tested for use as models of wound healing and infection.
Finally, they tested how these cells could serve as future experimental models for lip wound healing or infection. They scratched samples of cells to see if these cells could serve as an accurate representative of wound healing.
While untreated cells closed the wound in eight hours, cells treated with growth factors closed the wound more quickly. These results match those seen in skin cells from other parts of the body.
Next, the scientists infected these cells with a fungus called “Candida albicans”, which causes infection in people with weakened immunity or cleft lips. This model was able to behave exactly like real lip cells and the infection spread rapidly.
Dr. Dagan believes that these 3-D models made from healthy lip cells could prove useful in many other areas of medicine, and that expanding this technology could benefit thousands of patients.
–IANS
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