Melanocyte repopulation in full-thickness wounds using a cell spray apparatus.
Melanocyte restoration is critical in reconstituting skin color. We developed a spotted (piebald) pig wound model to study methods of restoring melanocytes to the epidermis. Paired, full-thickness, porcine wounds were covered with nonpigmented, fully expanded, 3:1 meshed, split-thickness skin grafts and were sprayed with an epidermal cell suspension. The suspensions were highly pigmented skin (HPS) cell isolates for half of the wounds (n = 16) and nonpigmented skin (NPS) cell isolates for the remaining wounds (n = 16). Histologic sections showed 6.0 +/- 3.0 and 15 +/- 4.0 pigmented melanocytes per high-power field on days 8 and 20 in HPS-treated wounds and no pigmented melanocytes in NPS-treated wounds. Melanin pigment was dispersed in all layers of the epithelium for the HPS group on day 20 compared with a lack of melanin pigment observed in the NPS group. Cell spraying may provide a clinical method to restore color to skin; further work is needed to control the expression of melanin.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02115-6195, USA.
F A
FA
Navarro
M L
ML
Stoner
H B
HB
Lee
C S
CS
Park
F M
FM
Wood
D P
DP
Orgill
D000279:Administration, Cutaneous; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004848:Epithelium / Q000473:pathology*; D017496:Hypopigmentation / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008543:Melanins / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000637:transplantation*; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D016038:Skin Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D013552:Swine; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000601:surgery*
D008543:Melanins