title: Reconstruction of a tissue-engineered skin containing melanocytes.
abstract: The objective of this study was to establish a new method for reconstruction of a tissue-engineered skin containing melanocytes by employing tissue engineering. The keratinocytes, melanocytes and dermal fibroblasts were isolated and purified from human foreskin biopsies. Then the cells were used to construct a tissue-engineered skin containing melanocytes. The localization of melanocytes in the tissue-engineered skin was detected by DOPA staining, S-100 immunohistochemical staining and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The results showed that the melanocytes could be detected in the basal layer of the constructed skin and the melanocytes showed dendritic morphology. Moreover the constructed skins were used to repair the athymic mice skin defects. Animal experiment results indicated that the skin equivalents could successfully repair full thickness skin defects in athymic mice and generated black skins by 6weeks after grafting. Melanocytes located in the basal layer of the athymic mice skin could also be detected by using the S-100 immunohistochemical staining. Our established method is useful to repair the full-thickness skin defects.
authors.affiliation: Center for Tissue Engineering, Department of Oral Histology and Pathology, School of Stomatology, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China. yanjin@fmmu.edu.cn
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Fumihiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Suwa
authors.forename: Xinwen
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Akimichi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Takemura
authors.forename: Yi Ru
authors.initials: YR
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Yuan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000818:Animals; D018929:Cell Culture Techniques; D002469:Cell Separation; D020405:Dermis / Q000166:cytology; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine / Q000378:metabolism; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000166:cytology; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology; D008544:Melanocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D051379:Mice; D008819:Mice, Nude; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D009418:S100 Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D023822:Tissue Engineering / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D009418:S100 Proteins; D004295:Dihydroxyphenylalanine