BIOLOGY OF FOETAL SKIN AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN SKIN RECONSTRUCTION

Abstract

Use of keratinocyte grafting technology for wound healing is limited by immunological barriers and the time and expense of amplifying keratinocytes in culture before grafting. The availability of a plentiful supply of non-immunogenic allogeneic epidermal cell source may overcome this problem. The feasibility of using human foetal skin cells for allogeneic transplantation was therefore studied using immunohistology to determine maturity, keratin expression, stem cell markers, extracellular matrix proteins and expression of immunogenic molecules. An optimized serum-free culture regime was established for human foetal keratinocytes in monolayer and organotypic cultures. Grafting was performed using cells seeded on fibroblast-embedded dermal scaffold. Proliferative potential, colony-forming ability, telomere lengths, and immunogenic markers were all measured. Foetal keratinocytes show higher proliferation, faster expansion times, longer telomeres, lower immunogenic molecules and can stratify both in vitro and in vivo. These results favour the feasibility of foetal skin for grafts, opening another avenue for novel approaches in cell-based therapy for wounds.