Synthetic skin may be good enough to imitate animal skin in laboratory tests report Bharat Bhushan and Wei Tang, Ohio State University, USA.

They compared the response of synthetic skins to rat skin when they were both exposed to a generic skin cream treatment. Atomic force microscopy revealed that the skin cream reduced the surface roughness, increased the skin’s ability to absorb moisture from the environment, and softened the skin surface for each of the samples. The film thickness, adhesive force, coefficient of friction, surface roughness, and contact angle of the two synthetic skins and rat skin were also comparable.

These findings mean that synthetic skin could one day replace real skin for the testing of cosmetics and in the treatment of burns.

• Surface, tribological, and mechanical characterization of synthetic skins for tribological applications in cosmetic science
  B. Bhushan, W. Tang,
  J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2011, 120(5), 2881-2890.
  DOI: 10.1002/app.33340