Enrichment of epidermal stem cells by rapid adherence and analysis of the reciprocal interaction of epidermal stem cells with neighboring cells using an organotypic system.
Keratinocytes have the ability to adhere to extracellular matrix rapidly. With this in mind, in this study we isolated keratinocytes known as rapidly adhering (RA) cells. To compare epidermal regenerative abilities, skin substitutes were reconstructed by adding keratinocytes or RA cells to two groups of bioengineered dermis made by fibroblasts and hair follicle dermal cells respectively. After transplantation, the results illustrated that the skin substitutes including RA cells were integrated into the host tissue. Furthermore, with hair follicle dermal cells' influences, the RA cells could form structures very similar to normal hair follicles. These results indicate that RA cells are predominately comprised of epidermal stem cells. The results also demonstrated that besides the reciprocal interaction of epidermal stem cells with dermal cells, the interaction of epidermal stem cells with keratinocytes were critical in epidermis morphogenesis and self-renewal, and application of RA cells could optimize engineering of skin substitutes.
Dong
Rui
R
Department of Oral Histology and Pathology, College of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710032, P.R. China.
Liu
Xiaoliang
X
Liu
Yuan
Y
Deng
Zhihong
Z
Nie
Xin
X
Wang
Xinwen
X
Jin
Yan
Y
D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002450:Cell Communication / Q000502:physiology*; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D002648:Child; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D004817:Epidermis / Q000637:transplantation; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008819:Mice, Nude; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D016038:Skin Transplantation; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods; D014183:Transplantation, Heterologous