StemCell Therapy

AUSTIN (Nexstar) For about three decades,parts of Isha Dhars skin have lostcolor.

Ive had vitiligo since I was five, she said.It happens, stops, happens, stops.

Vitiligo is a medical condition where patches in the skin lose pigment.A person who has vitiligo can either have one patch or multiple patches of lighter skin on theirface, arms, legs or other parts of their body.It can also affect hair.

Its not completely understood what causes vitiligo, but its thought that the immune system does play a role in potentially getting some of these skin cells that cause pigment or what gives your skincolor to stop working,said Dr.Lia Gracey, MD, PhD, a dermatologist with Baylor Scott & White Health.Vitiligo doesnt currently have a cure and it can be difficult to treat because vitiligo can be progressive with more and morecolorloss.

There are currently several treatment options to help with vitiligo,includingcreams, phototherapy, surgery and oral medication.But there is no cure.

Its not like it stops you from doing your regular work, Dhar said. Its not a debilitating condition in any way. It doesnt stop you from living your regular life.

But Dhar and dermatology experts say a lack of awareness can cause people to lose self-esteem and be self-conscious about their bodies. Thats whereitcan get tough.

Youre sort of, in some ways, different from every other person, Dhar said. It stands out and people stare. It is a very large lack of awareness and I feel like if more people knew about it, it might help to lessen the stares or questions.

In 2018,Winnie Harlow,a Canadian fashion model,was the first model with vitiligo to walk in the Victorias Secret Fashion Show.

Any step toward a truly equal and diversemodelingindustry is great, but for a huge brand like Victorias Secret to include models with skin conditions like vitiligo is a huge step to normalizing it in the entire industry, she said in a Teen Vogue interview. I hope that theres many more in the future. We need to work toward diversity, not for the sake of it, but to make it the norm. And I hope that this is a big step toward that.

TeVidoBioDevices,an Austin-based biotechnologystartup, is working on a treatment calledTruPigmentto help patients with vitiligo.During a patients first visit, the doctor will take a small sample of the persons healthy skin through a process called cellular grafting and will send this sample toTeVidoBioDevices. The company then takes the living skincells and places it in a liquid, which is theTruPigment, and then sendsit backto the doctors office.CEO Laura Bosworth says doctors can use it treat an area almost five times the skin samples size and its expected thatcolorwill come back in about two months.

[The doctor] just takes off that little thin sheet of skin in the area that youre planning to treat and then theres a little syringe of your cells in a liquid, she explained. You squirt it on, spread it around and bandage it up.

Dr.Ammar Ahmed, associate professor in the Division of Dermatology at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin, is working with the four patients who are seekingTruPigmentas a treatment for their vitiligo. Dhar is one of his patients. Ahmed is hopeful results can lead to somecolorcoming back in her and others skin.Dr.Ahmed says there are some layers of challenges patients face in accessing any treatments for vitiligo, because insurance companies view it as a cosmetic condition, rather than medical.

Right now, these types of grafting procedures are generally not covered by insurance companies in the United States, he explained. For the first several patients weve done, weve done it at a discount because theyre the first patients to be using this. It is a significant investment to get it done.

Dhar says shes tried othertreatments, butdidnt see much improvement. She is hopeful this treatment will add another option for treatment and raise public awareness about the skin condition.

I felt like giving it a little bit of a nudge with theTeVidotreatment would be a helpful thing, she said. I dont know the results yet.

Lets see, she added. Im keeping my fingers crossed.

View original post here:
Austin biotechnology company hopes to help patients with vitiligo - WWLP.com

This entry was posted on October 16, 2019 at 4:46 pm and is filed under Biotechnology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |