Researcher Developing Tattoo Removal Cream

BarbaraHudson writes During tattooing, ink is injected into the skin, initiating an immune response, and cells called "macrophages" move into the area and "eat up" the ink. The macrophages carry some of the ink to the body's lymph nodes, but some that are filled with ink stay put, embedded in the skin. That's what makes the tattoo visible under the skin. Dalhousie Uiversity's Alec Falkenham is developing a topical cream that works by targeting the macrophages that have remained at the site of the tattoo. New macrophages move in to consume the previously pigment-filled macrophages and then migrate to the lymph nodes, eventually taking all the dye with them. "When comparing it to laser-based tattoo removal, in which you see the burns, the scarring, the blisters, in this case, we've designed a drug that doesn't really have much off-target effect," he said. "We're not targeting any of the normal skin cells, so you won't see a lot of inflammation. In fact, based on the process that we're actually using, we don't think there will be any inflammation at all and it would actually be anti-inflammatory."

Comments

Why?

[bigdavex]

No ragrets

Re:IF true...

[narcc]

When people say "six-figures" they don't generally count the two after the decimal point.

Would you like an EAR to go with that, sir?

[TiggertheMad]

Too true. Why just think of it, Mike Tyson might be able to get a job a McDonalds once he got rid of his freaky face tattoos...

Re:Good for other things than tats?

[rmdingler]

If the macrophages do this with tattoo ink, they no doubt do it with other things, as well.

I wonder if using this cream to remove ALL the dead-macrophages-loaded-with-junk from the skin will result in effectively "younger" skin?

If your hypothesis is proven accurate, the new product will remove ink and years off your appearance.

Cha-ching!

The only pharmaceutical product imaginably more profitable would be a weight loss cream that makes your dick hard.