A comparative study between human skin equivalent and normal human skin.

Objective To develop a human skin equivalent model (SE) using normal keratinocytes (KCs) and menalocytes (MCs), which would serve as the basis for future clinical, biologic and pharmacologic studies. Methods KCs, MCs and fibroblasts (FBs) were cultured after neonatal foreskins were taken from routine circumcision. Cultured fibroblasts were mixed with rat tail type I collagen to form a dermal equivalent. Normal KCs and MCs were seeded on the dermal equivalent surface and grew to fuse to form an epidermal equivalent, which was cultured at the air liquid interface a week later to promote the differentiation and cornification of the epidermis. After being harvested, the SE and normal human skin were both assessed for overall morphology, presence of basement membrane components and expression of different markers. Results The histology of the basal layer, suprabasal layer and horny layer of SE was similar to that of the normal skin. When the markers related to the basement membrane zone were evaluated, similar results were observed. Pan-cytokeratin and keratin 10 both expressed similarly between the SE and normal skin. Conclusion The evaluation of the histology and the expression of different skin markers demonstrate that SE is similar to normal skin.