Cultured Epidermal Cells and Their Use in the Generation of Epidermis

Abstract

With fibroblast support, epidermal cells can be serially cultivated. These cultured cells can organize themselves into a coherent stratified epithelium. Such cultures can be used to study the growth and differentiation of the keratinocyte. They have also been successfully grafted in the treatment of extensive burns or chronic skin ulcers. Eventually a graft of epidermal cells expressing a transduced gene might be used to produce a therapeutic protein with local or systemic effects.