By Xiu Xing, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Samples of dressing with tilapia skin, developed in extensive research by the Federal University of Ceará (UFC), will be sent to space by the North American Space Agency NASA.
This initiative will enable biological material from the skin of the fish, used mainly in the reconstruction of human skin in burned cases, to be tested on orbit.
Part of the Cubes in Space project, it aims to examine how tilapia skin behaves under atmospheric pressure, radiation and gravity conditions.
Researchers believe that tests carried out in outer space may provide valuable information for future applications of tilapia skin (e.g., in internal prostheses in the human body) as well as how the material responds to variations in the outer environment.
The Cubes in Space project has already sent to space some 700 tests by students from more than 60 countries since 2013.
Tilapia skin was initially used in the treatment of burns. The technique for restoration of burns developed by the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) was exported and used to heal burns on bears in California.
In gynecological surgeries, the application was successful. On the most recent case, the material was used in an unprecedented procedure for vaginal reconstruction of a transsexual woman, performed at Unicamp, in Campinas (SP).
In Ceará, vaginal reconstruction surgeries with the fish membrane have already been performed in women with Rokitansky syndrome, vaginal agenesis or pelvic cancer.
The positive repercussion of results obtained from research has already been referenced in American TV series such as “The Good Doctor” and “Grey’s Anatomy”.