A medical team at Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, East Sussex has already used the technique to treat a man with burns over 90 percent of his body.
They now hope to produce hard evidence of its worth to justify its high pricetag, with a study that will test whether the cells go on to become full functioning parts of the skin.
The technique was first discovered in Perth, Western Australia, but was never fully tested. The team at East Grinstead has embraced the technology, using it to treat patients with severe and extensive burns.
Currently, in order to treat burn victims, samples of the skin from unaffected areas are collected and put through a meshing machine, which expands the tissue, creating a string vest pattern of connected patches of skin surrounded by large holes.
This technique can be used to cover big patches of tissue where skin has been completely burned away. However, it can prove slow, and sometimes ineffective.
With the new technique, a healthy skin sample is taken from the patient and split in a lab to separate surface cells, known as keratinocytes.
These keratinocytes are cultured for two to three weeks and made up into a suspension. Meanwhile, other skin cell tissue from the patient is put through a type of meshing machine, called the meek master, which cuts the skin sample into tiny squares.
The cultured cells are then sprayed on to the small pieces of tissue and combine to create new skin for the patient.
Phil Gilbert, a consultant plastic surgeon who specializes in burns, says the aim of the new study is to test whether the cultured cells continue to divide and form new skin, or whether new skin only comes from the tiny pieces of skin with which it is combined.
The new study will be conducted on 24 adults with severe burns, and about 50 children under the age of three with scalds.
