New skin from the old ceremony?

Oy gevalt!

It seems that circumcision isn't only useful as a Covenant ceremony, or an aid to male cleanliness - it now produces cells for facial enhancement!

This treatment, called Vavelta, has been developed by the British biomedical company Intercytex. What is radical about it is that it seems to rejuvenate and restructure ageing and damaged skin from the inside by repopulating the lower layers of the skin with millions of healthy young skin cells.

Unlike fillers and Botox, it is claimed to be permanent.

Vavelta is a clear liquid in which tiny skin cells, called fibroblasts, are suspended. These are derived from baby foreskins donated by mothers at a hospital in the U.S. after routine circumcision.

The mothers and babies are screened before the foreskins, which would otherwise be discarded, are used.

Once in Britain, they are divided into pieces less than a centimetre square and treated with enzymes to release the fibroblasts. These are grown in sterile conditions in labs.

The process is monitored by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. and by Britain's Human Tissue Authority.

Fibroblast cells are responsible for the repair and maintenance of youthful skin, pumping out collagen to create a line-free complexion.

But as we age, they become dormant and many die. In trials, Vavelta appears to make skin smoother, thicker, more resilient and younger.

The treatment is not instant as the cells need time to settle into the dermis before they start to reproduce and stimulate new collagen, so results can take a month or more to register.

Vavelta is so new that results of the final clinical trials - on burns scars - aren't completed. But so far, it seems to work for most people and, in some cases, it is astonishingly effective.

. . .

A vial of Vavelta costs £750 [$1,100], and to treat two cheeks for acne scarring would need two.

By contrast, Botox costs from £250 [$366] and fillers are from £300 [$440].

However, Vavelta's advocates say it appears to be able to treat conditions for which there is no other effective solution and, unlike laser treatment, there is no need for recovery time.

Well . . . whatever floats your boat, I guess!

I have only one minor quibble.

The foreskins used to make this treatment are, of course, from male babies . . . and it's being injected into female facial tissue to treat acne scars and other problems.

Twelve to fifteen years from now, as they 'grow up', will those male cells begin producing facial hair?



Peter