Researchers have discovered that the skin contains stem cells, which could have many medical applications.
Stem cells are the primitive cells which can be induced to turn into many useful cell types. This opens up the possibility of creating tissue for repair of body parts damaged by chronic disease.

Stem cells have now been found, for the first time, in the skin of an laboratory mouse, according to research by a team at the University of California, San Francisco. They learned that the bottom layer of skin actually has as many stem cells as does the bone marrow. The cells have the potential to be turned into all the different types of skin cell. They could be used as a carrier for gene therapy and have many potential applications in dermatology. For instance, they could be transplanted directly to areas of skin damaged by wounds or burns. These uses will require many more years of research but brings the possibility of skin repair, using the patient's own cells, one step closer.