Artificial skin grafts are already being tried in the clinic fortreating severe burns and chronic venous skin ulcers. The FDAapproved expanded clinical trials of Advanced Tissue SciencesInc.'s Dermagraft to treat decubitis and diabetic ulcers. It isalready in human trials for treating severe burns and chronicvenous skin ulcers. The La Jolla, Calif., company uses tissueengineering to re-create human skin, cartilage, bone marrowand liver. The initial target population for dermal replacementtherapy is the 1 million patients whose chronic skin ulcersresist conventional treatment.

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