title: Human umbilical cord blood cells form epidermis in the skin equivalent model.
abstract: Recently, human embryonic stem cells have been differentiated in vitro into functional epidermal keratinocytes. Here, we demonstrated that these cells can be generated also from non-embryonic, human umbilical cord blood (hUCB) cells that have the potential to differentiate into cells of non-hematopoietic lineage. Human UCB mono-nucleated cells were cultivated in monolayer and in three-dimensional skin equivalent cultures and assayed for the presence of phenotype-specific markers. Our results determined that after one month of culturing in serum containing medium, the hUCB cells produced morphologically homogeneous colonies of epithelial cells expressing keratinocyte-specific markers. They also formed stratified epidermis in organ cultures that contained sporadic CD1a-positive cells within the accurate strata. We concluded that hUCB cells have the capacity to differentiate into functional epidermal keratinocytes and may serve as a source of high-quality keratinocytes for clinical applications.
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mortier
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Delesalle
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Formstecher
authors.forename: Renata
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Polakowska
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D005312:Fetal Blood / Q000166:cytology*; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000166:cytology*; D009924:Organ Culture Techniques; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*