Fate of human keratinocytes during reepithelialization in an organotypic culture model.

Abstract

This is the first report of an organotypic model for reepithelialization, and we demonstrate that migration, proliferation, and differentiation occur during this process. The proliferative response which follows initial cell migration at the wound margins suggests that these events are temporally coordinated as phenotypically different populations of cells are sequentially activated. By following the distribution of genetically marked cells in the wound, it is evident that at least two types of cells repopulate a wound-proliferative and migratory cells.