Treatment of epidermolysis bullosa with human cultured epidermal allografts.

Junctional epidermolysis bullosa letalis type Herlitz Pearson is a genetically determined, life-threatening disease. Effective therapy has been lacking to date. Therefore any therapy that improves wound healing would be beneficial for these patients. Cultured epidermal grafts are known to enhance wound epithelialization and have been used with success in some epidermolysis bullosa disorders. Encouraged by these reports, we grafted cultured allogeneic keratinocytes to an infant with a junctional epidermolysis bullosa letalis type.