Abstract
The goal of regenerative medicine is to reconstruct fully functional organs from tissue culture expanded human cells. In this study, we report a method for human reconstructed skin (hRSK) when starting with human cells. We implanted tissue culture expanded human epidermal and dermal cells into an excision wound on the back of immunodeficient mice. Pigmented skin covered the wound 4 weeks after implantation. Hair shafts were visible at 12 weeks and prominent at 14 weeks. Histologically, the hRSK comprises an intact epidermis and dermis with mature hair follicles, sebaceous glands and most notably, and unique to this system, subcutis. Morphogenesis, differentiation, and maturation of the hRSK mirror the human fetal process. Human antigen markers demonstrate that the constituent cells are of human origin for at least 6 months. The degree of new skin formation is most complete when using tissue culture expanded cells from fetal skin, but it also occurs with expanded newborn and adult cells; however, no appendages formed when we grafted both adult dermal and epidermal cells. The hRSK system promises to be valuable as a laboratory model for studying biological, pathological, and pharmaceutical problems of human skin.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
