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A Cut above the Rest?: Wrinkle Treatment Uses Babies' Foreskins

Male circumcision-derived skin-rejuvenator injections in U.K. have yet to be approved in U.S.
By Coco Ballantyne | February12,2009| 26

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The Science of Beauty

Just in time for Mother's Day: From Mother Nature's timeless skin remedies to the latest findings in anti-aging research, science helps to explain how treatments work andwhetherthey'resafe
May 8, 2009

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With each passing year, the crow's-feet framing your eyes and the creases lining your forehead grow deeper. And those pits and craters, constant reminders of junior high acne, just won't disappear. Cosmetic and dermatological companies have many potential fixes for your dermal woesfillers to minimize the appearance of wrinkles, laser treatments to smooth imperfections, eveninjectionsofbacterialproteins(Botox) that paralyze your face muscles to prevent skin stretching.* And at least one company is searching for the fountain of youth in baby foreskinsyes, we're talking about that flap of skin sliced away during male circumcision.
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About 150 patients in the U.K. have already received injections of Vavelta, a foreskinderived skin treatment aimed at rejuvenating and smoothing skin withered with age or damaged by scarring from acne, burns and surgical incisions, according to a spokesperson for Intercytex, PLC, the Cambridge, England-based company that makes the product. The U.S. Food and Drug

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Administration (FDA) has not approved Vavelta, nor have any other federal agencies outside the U.K., where it was introduced in June 2007. Each vial of Vavelta (enough for treating about four square centimeters of skin, roughly the size of a U.S. postal stamp) consists of about 20 million live fibroblasts cells that produce a skin-firming protein called collagen, which becomes increasingly scarcewithage.Fibroblastsalsomakeelastin,aproteinthatallowstheskintosnap back to its original shape after being pulled or stretched like a rubber band, as well as hyaluronic acid, which locks moisture in the skin, keeping it supple and plump.

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The fibroblasts in Vavelta are isolated from the foreskins taken from baby boys, given several months to grow and multiply in the lab, and then packaged into treatment vials that are shipped to a select group of U.K. physicians. Each vial costs approximately 750 pounds, or $1,000], according to the company spokesperson.

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Once delivered into the skin, the fibroblasts begin producing collagen, hyaluronic acid and elastin (which build and reinforce it) orthey make enzymes called metalloproteinases to break down excessive amounts of proteins that accumulate in scar tissue, according to Paul Kemp, Intercytex's chief scientific officer.

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The results? "I was treated on one side of my face last year [and] the treated side feels smoother and plumper," Kemp says. "However, the visible difference is quite subtle. In patients who have been treated for acne scarring, there has been a visible improvement in the texture and surface contour of the skin. Similarly, in patients with scar tissue the result has been a softening of the scar and, in some cases, a dramatic increase in flexibility." Jeffrey Orringer, director of the Cosmetic Dermatology and Laser Center at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, says that the concept is "intriguing," but warns that a number of questions must be answered before the product goes mainstream. Among them: How long will the fibroblasts survive and function normally once they are injected into the skin? And will they produce enough collagen to produce noticeable results, or perhaps too much, causing unsightly thickening of the skin? Ron Moy, a dermatologist at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, says that foreskin cells could potentially carry viruses. And although the company screens all the fibroblasts for contamination, he cautions there is "no test that's perfect." The idea of using fibroblastsincluding those swiped from baby foreskinsto repair skin is not new. Companies such as Organogenesis, Inc., in Canton, Mass., and Forticell Bioscience, Inc., in New York City already market such FDA-approved products to promote wound healing. But treating wrinkles with baby foreskins? The jury is still out.

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26 Comments
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1. Dave Garlsen 09:42 PM 2/12/09

SciAm should know better than to describe Botox as "bacteria." The drug is the toxin made by the bacteria that

cause botulism. If patients were injected with C. botulinum bacteria, I believe it would be lethal.
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2. dlcdan 10:06 PM 2/12/09

Clostridium botulinum (names should be underlined) is ubiquitous in our environment (soil). It produces a neurotoxin that causes the symptoms of botulism (blurred/double vision, drooling, facial muscle paralysis, difficulty coordinating limbs, and untimately, paralysis of the diaphragm muscle that allows breathing). If the raw toxin is injected into patients, it causes serious side effects, such as those seen in the "Florida botulism case."
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3. TLCTugger 10:28 AM 2/13/09

How can it possibly be legal in our society to commercialize human body parts amputated without consent? No infant ever gave permission to have his foreskin amputated. I'd be locked up if I tried to have my new puppy circumcised. Humans don't have rights surpassing those of dogs? We need a law requiring disclosure of financial arrangements between doctors/hospitals and the labs who develop products from amputated human body parts - to the familes and victims of senseless amputations. Any money should be placed in trust until the victim reaches 18 and can sue for damages. If the parents knew that a baby's foreskin was worth about 50 bucks to the doctor, maybe they wouldn't be so quick to buy the lie that healthy normal genital tissue should be amputated. Every mammal on earth evolved a prepuce before there was surgery or even soap. 95% of the non-Muslim world does not circumcise. Foreskin feels REALLY good. HIS body HIS decision.
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4. ErnestPayne 04:37 PM 2/13/09

well I can understand why something from a male penis would cause enlargement.
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5. lordpasternack 09:06 AM 2/14/09

If the "jury is out" on the idea of using cutlets from infant male genitals - is it also out on the idea of doing the self-same thing with infant female genitals?
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6. slcmcguire in reply to TLCTugger 05:04 AM 2/16/09

Here Here! VIOLENT cultures use knives on penises. There is a correlation between circumcision and WAR. Is there also a correlation between circumcision in a culture and higher rates of rape? I wouldn't be surprised.
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7. slcmcguire in reply to JamesDavis 05:07 AM 2/16/09

It's good to see a healthy dose of OUTRAGE at doctors who should (and probably do) know better than to cut bits off babies.
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8. slcmcguire in reply to lordpasternack 05:08 AM 2/16/09

excellent point, good sir! what a despicable double standard.

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9. jbradfor in reply to JamesDavis 02:12 PM 2/16/09

While I'm sure Americans would jump at the chance to use the product in question, it was developed in the UK.
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10. katkoowee 06:27 PM 2/17/09

Hmmm...this treatment puts a new twist on the meaning of "dickhead".

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