title: Barrier properties of an N/TERT-based human skin equivalent.
abstract: Human skin equivalents (HSEs) can be considered a valuable tool to study aspects of human skin, including the skin barrier, or to perform chemical or toxicological screenings. HSEs are three-dimensional skin models that are usually established using primary keratinocytes and closely mimic human skin. The use of primary keratinocytes has several drawbacks, including a limited in vitro life span and large donor-donor variation. This makes them less favorable for in vitro toxicity screenings. Usage of an established keratinocyte cell line circumvents these drawbacks and enables the generation of easy-to-generate and reproducible HSEs, which can be used for pharmacological and/or toxicological screenings. For such screenings, a proper barrier function is required. In this study, we investigated the barrier properties of HSEs established with the keratinocyte cell line N/TERT (N-HSEs). N-HSEs showed comparable tissue morphology and expression of several epidermal proteins compared with HSEs established with primary keratinocytes. Our results clearly demonstrate that N-HSEs not only contain several stratum corneum (SC) barrier properties similar to HSEs, including the presence of the long periodicity phase and a comparable SC permeability, but also show some differences in lipid composition. Nonetheless, the similarities in barrier properties makes N/TERT cells a promising alternative for primary keratinocytes to generate HSEs.
authors.affiliation: 1 Gorlaeus Laboratories, Department of Drug Delivery Technology, Leiden Academy Centre for Drug Research, Leiden University , Leiden, The Netherlands .
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: van Drongelen
authors.forename: Mogbekeloluwa O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Danso
authors.forename: Aat
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Arnout
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mieremet
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van Smeden
authors.forename: Joke A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Bouwstra
authors.forename: Abdoelwaheb
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El Ghalbzouri
mesh_terms: D010129:4-Aminobenzoic Acid / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D065966:Absorption, Physicochemical; D001672:Biocompatible Materials / Q000737:chemistry; D002460:Cell Line; D000078404:Epidermal Cells; D004817:Epidermis / Q000378:metabolism*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006801:Humans; D015603:Keratinocytes / Q000145:classification / Q000166:cytology* / Q000378:metabolism*; D012869:Skin Absorption / Q000502:physiology*; D017768:Skin, Artificial; D019098:Telomerase / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D001672:Biocompatible Materials; C509186:TERT protein, human; D019098:Telomerase; D010129:4-Aminobenzoic Acid