When are root hair cells not root hair cells? When they differentiate into skin cells! According to Growing Artificial Skin From Hair Roots, a recent article from ScienceDaily, researchers in Leipzig have perfected a technique in which they use a person’s root hair cells as a source of stem cells that can be cultured into skin cells. The process takes about three weeks. Thus, the cells are genetically identical to the person’s cells, as a skin graft would be, but scarring is reduced in two ways: First, since there is no graft source, scars are eliminated from possibility there, and second, the cultured skin cells have been shown to cover a chronic wound in 72 days with no scarring. This is great news for diabetics, especially, who frequently suffer from chronic open wounds.

How to Turn This News Event into an Inquiry-Based, Standards-Related Science Lesson

The Life Science Content Standard of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) for grades 5-8 encourages students to begin exploring cells as the fundamental unit of structure and function in life. This current research provides an excellent introduction or an extension to a study of cells. Ask students: What is your skin made of? How do you know? They should arrive at the idea that it is living tissue, and that it demonstrates the characteristics of life — growth and reproduction, and the need to take in nutrients. How can that be tested, verified? One verification comes from the research described in this article.

Another angle you can take with this current news is the technology angle. The Science and Technology Standard of NSES emphasizes understanding technological design and encourages students to be able to evaluate technological innovations for their potential risks and benefits. You could facilitate a class discussion in which students are asked how helpful this technology will be and to whom? Will all potential beneficiaries have equal access to it? Why not? What can/should be done about that? Who else, besides diabetics, might benefit? Further, the clean lab concept, necessary for the tissue culture, could be explored.

Here are some additional resources that are part of the NSDL Middle School Portal collection to facilitate your instruction regarding skin, cells and stem cells: Biology4Kids, choose Animals Systems, then Integumenary from the right navigation bar; Cells Alive!, choose Mitosis from the left navigation bar; and Issues In-depth : Setting FIRES to Stem Cell Research

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