Skip to main content

Japanese scientists have created artificial skin that can grow hair and sweat

According to a study published in the aptly titled journal Science Advances, scientists at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology successfully created a batch of lab-grown skin capable of not only growing hair but also sweating. Furthermore, the grown tissue, which the researchers implanted onto living mice, displayed the uncanny ability to facilitate bonds within the test animals’ muscle fibers and nerves. RIKEN hopes that these positive results can assist researchers with the creation and development of future skin transplants for burn victims or those afflicted with skin diseases.

Though the development of lab-grown skin isn’t at this point altogether revolutionary, the functionality of RIKEN’s sample blows previous studies out of the water. In the past, basic skin tissue grown in labs has been used in human patients; however, none featured more than two layers of actual tissue — nor the capacity to tout hair follicles or sweat glands. RIKEN’s manufactured skin substitute also features the typical three layers of tissue which are regularly found in human skin.

RIKEN's lab-grown skin as viewed under a microscope
RIKEN’s lab-grown skin as viewed under a microscope Takashi Tsuji, RIKEN

To create the sweat-producing, hair-growing skin samples, the research team started by extracting a batch of cells from the gums of mice. After using a mixture of chemicals to turn the derived gum cells into something similar to stem cells, they then developed a fully functioning, three-layer skin sample in a collection of lab dishes. Once created, the skin was implanted onto the mice where the researchers reported the normal connection of nerves and muscle tissues. These healthy connections allowed the implanted tissue to naturally function inside the mice without any sign of rejections. Additionally, hair began growing from the implants roughly two weeks after insertion.

“Our present outcomes indicate a proof of concept of regenerative therapy of a fully functional and integrated skin organ system that will have a potential for the application of future clinical treatment,” says RIKEN team leader Takashi Tsuji to Live Science.

Despite the success, there does remain a critical caveat regarding the use of such a breakthrough in humans; creation of human tissue would require the use of human cells along with the need to decipher how exactly one might grow skin tissue from those same cells. In the meantime, Tsuji acknowledged that RIKEN’s new lab-grown skin could serve as a test surface for cosmetics, helping alleviate the amount of testing currently performed on animals. The scientist also said his lab plans on working toward producing other lab-grown organs such as teeth or salivary glands.

Editors' Recommendations

Rick Stella
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Rick became enamored with technology the moment his parents got him an original NES for Christmas in 1991. And as they say…
Digital Trends’ Top Tech of CES 2023 Awards
Best of CES 2023 Awards Our Top Tech from the Show Feature

Let there be no doubt: CES isn’t just alive in 2023; it’s thriving. Take one glance at the taxi gridlock outside the Las Vegas Convention Center and it’s evident that two quiet COVID years didn’t kill the world’s desire for an overcrowded in-person tech extravaganza -- they just built up a ravenous demand.

From VR to AI, eVTOLs and QD-OLED, the acronyms were flying and fresh technologies populated every corner of the show floor, and even the parking lot. So naturally, we poked, prodded, and tried on everything we could. They weren’t all revolutionary. But they didn’t have to be. We’ve watched enough waves of “game-changing” technologies that never quite arrive to know that sometimes it’s the little tweaks that really count.

Read more
Digital Trends’ Tech For Change CES 2023 Awards
Digital Trends CES 2023 Tech For Change Award Winners Feature

CES is more than just a neon-drenched show-and-tell session for the world’s biggest tech manufacturers. More and more, it’s also a place where companies showcase innovations that could truly make the world a better place — and at CES 2023, this type of tech was on full display. We saw everything from accessibility-minded PS5 controllers to pedal-powered smart desks. But of all the amazing innovations on display this year, these three impressed us the most:

Samsung's Relumino Mode
Across the globe, roughly 300 million people suffer from moderate to severe vision loss, and generally speaking, most TVs don’t take that into account. So in an effort to make television more accessible and enjoyable for those millions of people suffering from impaired vision, Samsung is adding a new picture mode to many of its new TVs.
[CES 2023] Relumino Mode: Innovation for every need | Samsung
Relumino Mode, as it’s called, works by adding a bunch of different visual filters to the picture simultaneously. Outlines of people and objects on screen are highlighted, the contrast and brightness of the overall picture are cranked up, and extra sharpness is applied to everything. The resulting video would likely look strange to people with normal vision, but for folks with low vision, it should look clearer and closer to "normal" than it otherwise would.
Excitingly, since Relumino Mode is ultimately just a clever software trick, this technology could theoretically be pushed out via a software update and installed on millions of existing Samsung TVs -- not just new and recently purchased ones.

Read more
AI turned Breaking Bad into an anime — and it’s terrifying
Split image of Breaking Bad anime characters.

These days, it seems like there's nothing AI programs can't do. Thanks to advancements in artificial intelligence, deepfakes have done digital "face-offs" with Hollywood celebrities in films and TV shows, VFX artists can de-age actors almost instantly, and ChatGPT has learned how to write big-budget screenplays in the blink of an eye. Pretty soon, AI will probably decide who wins at the Oscars.

Within the past year, AI has also been used to generate beautiful works of art in seconds, creating a viral new trend and causing a boon for fan artists everywhere. TikTok user @cyborgism recently broke the internet by posting a clip featuring many AI-generated pictures of Breaking Bad. The theme here is that the characters are depicted as anime characters straight out of the 1980s, and the result is concerning to say the least. Depending on your viewpoint, Breaking Bad AI (my unofficial name for it) shows how technology can either threaten the integrity of original works of art or nurture artistic expression.
What if AI created Breaking Bad as a 1980s anime?
Playing over Metro Boomin's rap remix of the famous "I am the one who knocks" monologue, the video features images of the cast that range from shockingly realistic to full-on exaggerated. The clip currently has over 65,000 likes on TikTok alone, and many other users have shared their thoughts on the art. One user wrote, "Regardless of the repercussions on the entertainment industry, I can't wait for AI to be advanced enough to animate the whole show like this."

Read more