title: Towards the development of a simplified long-term organ culture method for human scalp skin and its appendages under serum-free conditions.
abstract: Organ culture of human scalp skin is usually performed with serum-containing medium, which limits its analytical usefulness. Here we report that intact human scalp skin can be grown at the air/liquid interface in supplemented, serum-free William's E medium for more than 2 weeks. Active hair shaft growth was visible until day 16 and was significantly enhanced compared with minimum essential medium (MEM) + 10% fetal bovine serum (FBS). Moreover, William's E medium protected better against cell death than MEM + 10% FBS before day 12. Using quantitative immunochemistry, proliferating (Ki-67+) cells could still be observed in the epithelium of hair follicles even on day 17 of serum-free skin organ culture. The number of apoptotic (TUNEL+) cells in the skin epithelium rose steadily after day 5. Giemsa stains revealed mature skin mast cells even after 13 days in culture. The percentage of surviving hair follicles (mostly with catagen- or telogen-like morphology) gradually increased over time displaying mostly catagen hair follicles after 17 days of culture. Although epidermis and hair follicle epithelium showed increasing atrophy and degeneration, and their pigmentation decreased gradually over time, some long-term-surviving epithelial islands were found in association with remnants of follicular structures as late as on day 88. These preliminary data suggest that a very simple serum-free organ culture method allows prolonged human skin and hair follicle survival as well as some limited hair follicle cycling in intact skin for more than 2 weeks under well-defined experimental conditions. This pragmatic assay invites multiple uses, and may become a valuable tool for both skin and hair research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Dermatology, 2nd Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Zhongfa
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Sybille
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hasse
authors.forename: Eniko
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bodo
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rose
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Funk
authors.forename: Ralf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Paus
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D004817:Epidermis / Q000502:physiology; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006197:Hair / Q000254:growth & development; D018859:Hair Follicle / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D006801:Humans; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase / Q000378:metabolism; D008407:Mast Cells / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D019188:Organ Preservation Solutions / Q000494:pharmacology*; D010858:Pigmentation / Q000502:physiology; D012535:Scalp / Q000166:cytology / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology / Q000502:physiology*; D012867:Skin / Q000166:cytology* / Q000187:drug effects / Q000201:enzymology; D012879:Skin Physiological Phenomena
chemical_list: D016895:Culture Media, Serum-Free; D019188:Organ Preservation Solutions; C475563:William's medium E; D007770:L-Lactate Dehydrogenase