Scientists first raised reptile skin

Scientists successfully reconstructed the skin of the green sea turtles.

Growing human skin in the laboratory is used to create the grafts for a burn victim, but still never managed to grow the skin for non-mammals.

But recently scientists led by the U.S. Geological survey successfully reconstructed skin green sea turtles. The experiment was conducted in the study of viral infection, which threatens the very existence of some species of reptiles.

The green turtle, which is found in tropical and subtropical seas, migrates thousands of kilometers during periods of breeding, and when some members of the species were so common that the crews of the ships caught them for food. They were also raised on special farms. Today the green turtle is endangered, and hunting them or collecting their eggs is prohibited by law.

Unfortunately, man is not the only threat to green turtles. They are also susceptible to virus chelonid herpesvirus 5 (ChHV5). Most often it affects turtles around the Hawaiian Islands, Florida and Brazil, he formed tumors on the skin, eyes, mouth, and internal tumors. The virus compromises the immune system of the animal, making it susceptible to secondary infections, which leads to depletion and even extinction.

Over the last 20 years scientists have tried to study the virus, but it was necessary to find a way to reproduce the tumor in the laboratory. To do this, a team from the U.S. Geological survey used the normal skin and of tumor cells to grow not only cell cultures, but also to create complex three-dimensional structure of the turtle skin.

According to Thierry Vorka, a scientist from the U.S. Geological survey, the new shell is much closer to real leather than the results of previous attempts, and it allows scientists to observe the replication of the virus in unprecedented detail. “ChHV5 causes the most common infectious disease affecting green turtles under threat of extinction,” — said Vork: “Our results provide a significant advance in the study of the virus, and, ultimately, could help scientists better know the other, caused by similar viruses of the disease, including humans.”

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