Cell and tissue research
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Cell and tissue research · Nov 2002
Crucial role of fibroblasts in regulating epidermal morphogenesis.
Epidermis reconstructed on de-epidermized dermis (DED) was used to investigate whether fibroblasts can substitute growth factors needed for generation of a fully differentiated epidermis. For this purpose, a centrifugal seeding method was developed to reproducibly incorporate different fibroblast numbers into DED. Using (immuno)histochemical techniques, we could demonstrate that in the absence of fibroblasts the formed epidermis consisted only of two to three viable cell layers with a very thin stratum corneum layer. ⋯ Irrespective of the number of fibroblasts incorporated into DED, the expression of alpha(3), alpha(6), beta(1), and beta(4) integrin subunits was upregulated. In fibroblast-free DED matrices normalization of epidermal differentiation was only achieved when the culture medium was supplemented by keratinocyte growth factor. The results of this study indicate that normalization of epidermal differentiation can be achieved using a non-contractile dermal matrix populated with fibroblasts.