ESTABLISHMENT OF MELANOCYTE DIFFERENTIATION AND FUNCTIONAL PIGMENTED FULL-THICKNESS SKIN EQUIVALENT DERIVED ENTIRELY FROM HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELLS

Abstract

The ubiquitous role of melanocytes in health and disease has increasingly been acknowledged in recent years. From dissecting biological mechanisms in melanocyte development, to investigating pigmentary skin disorders of clinical significance, much of our understanding of the biology of epidermal and oral mucosal melanocytes and melanin physiology were illuminated from work performed on in vitro pigmented skin equivalents. As a screening platform, information on pigmentation or bleaching effects of biomolecules and chemical formulations contribute necessarily to industrial testing and biomaterials manufacturing. However, existing commercial models are devoid of full-thickness, dermal compartment to resemble human skin structure while in-house models establish organotypic reconstructs often from genetically modified or multiple cell types. The thesis aims to address the above limitations from a standardization and reproducibility standpoint. Overcoming these problems necessitate fabricating from human embryonic stem cells where the entire construct originates from a single cell source, to reproduce a physiologically relevant model.