Giving new hope to patients who have been marred by burns, researchers in France have been able to create new human skin from human embryonic stem cells, and the move is being seen as a boon for burn victims in particular.

Traditionally, to aid burn victims, a person's own skin cells are grown in a laboratory, which then act as replacement skin to cover the damages left behind. This process generally takes over 3 weeks and has been linked to various complications. During the time that new skin is being generated, the victim's skin is covered with skin from a deceased donor, and this increases the chances of rejection and disease transmission manifolds.

The new method, however, leads to generation of cells which have characteristics similar to the skin's epidermis layer, and once placed on an artificial surface, can form a new layer of skin. Under the new process, the fully formed skin is developed within 12 weeks of stem cells' transplantation, with the texture and structure of human skin.

Details of the research have been published in The Lancet, and have given scientists much hope. Researchers have asserted that the new findings would provide "an unlimited resource for temporary skin replacement in patients with large burns awaiting grafts of their own skin".