Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cells Technologies

According to the Public Relations and International Affairs of the council for stem cell sciences and technologies, Dr. Hamideh Morravej, a researcher in dermatology and stem cell sciences participated in an interview.

She noticed the importance of stem cells when the fire of the of Tehrans Arg mosque occurred, when there was a need for skin structures to treat burn patients. But unfortunately, after numerous correspondence with various Western countries, including Germany, the very high cost of selling a small piece of skin, She decided to set up such technology in our own country. In order to acquire the necessary skills, she first traveled to Russia and after completing a training course she was able to use specific cells for treatment of burn wounds in Iran. In this technique, Fibroblast cells from the foreskin were spread on the patients skin after replication through the seven passages on the silicone dressing. In this method, the fibroblast cells penetrated into the wounds from the pores in the silicone. This method yielded very good results because the granulation process was reduced from three weeks to just one week.

In an another study, she cultured fibroblast cells on an amniotic membrane, which can have a rapid healing effect on skin lesions.

Dr. Morravejs team also worked on fat-derived mesenchymal stem cells. They performed their research for the treatment of 10 patients with skin wounds. She use mesenchymal stem cells extracted from fat tissue and by injecting into skin wounds proved that this function is completely safe. It should be noted that these studies is only part of her researches done by her.

In the end, she pointed to the importance of stem cells and cell therapy in the field of dermatology and successful treatment of diseases such as vitiligo, EB , burns and scars left in the wound. She is hoping that such technology will be spread in the country in the future.