title: Epidermal differentiation and dermal changes in healing following treatment of surgical wounds with sheets of cultured allogeneic keratinocytes.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the structural changes that occur in deep surgical wounds engrafted with allogeneic sheets, their time course and inter-relation.
  
  
  METHODS
  Deep surgical wounds following shave excision of tattoos (down to deep dermis/subcutaneous fat) were treated with sheets of sex mismatched allogeneic keratinocytes in 19 patients and then biopsied weekly until wound healing was complete. More superficial surgical wounds--that is, 20 standard skin graft donor sites, were biopsied at seven to 10 days (all healed) following application of keratinocyte allografts. All biopsy specimens were examined with a large panel of monoclonal antibodies to keratins, envelope proteins, basement membrane components, and to extracellular matrix components.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The hyperproliferative keratin pair K6/16 was expressed in all wounds, for up to six weeks in keratinocyte grafted deep wounds, and up to six months in split thickness skin grafted wounds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Keratins 6 and 16 have not been detected in normal skin, although the relevant mRNA has. This raises the possibility of regulation at a post-transcriptional level allowing a rapid response to injury with cytoskeletal changes that may aid cell migration. This keratin pair offers the most sensitive marker for altered epidermis following wounding.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Dermatology, Royal London Hospital.
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Myers
authors.forename: H A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Navsaria
authors.forename: A N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Brain
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Purkis
authors.forename: I M
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Leigh
mesh_terms: D001485:Basement Membrane / Q000378:metabolism; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D062109:Dermatologic Surgical Procedures; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000637:transplantation*; D007633:Keratins / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009077:Mucins / Q000378:metabolism; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011498:Protein Precursors / Q000378:metabolism; D012867:Skin / Q000378:metabolism; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D013653:Tattooing; D014945:Wound Healing / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D009077:Mucins; D011498:Protein Precursors; C032253:involucrin; D007633:Keratins