09 Nov Scientists Make New Skin For Boy With Debilatating ‘Butterfly Disease’

A little-known fact about human anatomy is that the skin is the body’s largest organ. That’s why skin diseases are so devastating, especially if they are rare, and there is no obvious solution to helping the people who are suffering from them.

One of the most deadly skin diseases on the planet is butterfly disease, otherwise known as epidermolysis bullosa. In its more severe forms, the life expectation of those with the disease is poor and only four in 10 live to see adolescence.

Those who are affected by butterfly disease show symptoms from birth. As its name suggests, the condition causes skin to become as fragile as a butterfly’s wing, and because of this, it easily blisters and tears, leaving sufferers in excruciating pain.

The condition is caused by missing type VII collagen – a protein which binds the top layer of skin to the bottom layer.

Seven-year-old Hassan – who was born in Syria but lives in Germany – was diagnosed with debilitating condition as a baby. He beat the odds to survive the early part of his childhood, but was admitted to hospital after losing almost two-thirds of his skin in 2015.

Forty percent of those with the disease do not live to be a year old.

Hassan was in so much pain that doctors at the Bochum Children’s Hospital’s burns unit where he’d been admitted had no option but to put him into an induced coma as they attempted to think of a solution to this ‘incurable’ condition.

Speaking about Hassan’s condition, Plastic surgeon Professor Tobias Hirsch said, “He’d lost nearly two-thirds of his skin. After two months we were absolutely sure we could do nothing for this kid and he would die.”

In an attempt to save Hassan’s life, doctors decided to use experimental stem cell treatment to create new skin so that he could be cured of butterfly disease. They gathered his DNA from a sample, removed the defect, and grew him new skin in a lab.

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