title: Construction of large area organotypical cultures of oral mucosa and skin.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Skin and oral mucosal keratinocytes grown in vitro usually lose their normal patterns of differentiation, unless grown as organotypical cultures that are constructed by allowing collagen gels containing fibroblasts to contract before they are plated with keratinocytes and raised to the air/medium interface. However, the contraction process tends to produce small irregular cultures.
  
  
  METHODS
  To generate uniformly differentiating large cultures, we have investigated several aspects of the factors involved in the culture construction. By adjusting the number of fibroblasts used and by plating the matrices with keratinocytes prior to contraction, cultures of up to 72 cm2 were constructed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The cultures retained almost the full surface areas of the original matrices and showed uniform patterns of epithelial plating and differentiation. Immunostaining for cytokeratins and integrins indicated restoration of in vitro phenotypes similar to those of the epithelial tissues of origin.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These methods successfully generate cultures required for certain types of investigations and tissues that are suitable for clinical use as grafts.
authors.affiliation: The Nippon Dental University School of Dentistry at Niigata, 1-8 Hamaura-cho, Niigata 951-8580, Japan.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Igarashi
authors.forename: C R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Irwin
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Locke
authors.forename: I C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002455:Cell Division; D003094:Collagen; D003470:Culture Media; D046508:Culture Techniques; D004285:Dogs; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D005782:Gels; D006801:Humans; D016023:Integrins / Q000032:analysis; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D009061:Mouth Mucosa / Q000166:cytology*; D010641:Phenotype; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology*
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D005782:Gels; D016023:Integrins; D007633:Keratins; D003094:Collagen