Cutaneous gene therapy: overview and perspectives

Progress in gene therapy is currently limited by the technical challenges of efficient gene transfer and long term expression of the curative transgene. Nevertheless, gene field in medical research. Skin is a good target for gene therapy and several trials of corrective gene transfer have been successfully performed in vitro. In this review, we report the recent progress in phenotypic reversion of cultured cells obtained from patients suffering from epidermolysis bullosa, recessive ichthyosis or xeroderma pigmentosum. The techniques of cutaneous gene therapy can be applied to wound healing treatment of systemic disorders, cutaneous immunomodulation and skin cancers. Successful development of the different, approaches relies on the improvement of safe and sufficient methods for gene transfer and on the establishment of appropriate animal models.