Bioengineered epidermis for cosmetologists and pharmacologists

Scientists from King's College London, led by Dr. Dusko Ilic and the San Francisco Veteran Affairs Medical Center, led by Dr. Theodora Mauro, for the first time grew an epidermis in the laboratory that provides the same barrier function as the top layer of real human skin.

"Artificial skin" grown from human induced pluripotent stem cells offers an economical and ethical alternative to using laboratory animals for testing medicines and cosmetics and will help in the development of new methods of treatment of various skin diseases.

The epidermis, the top layer of human skin, forms a barrier between the body and the external environment, preventing the skin from losing water and getting into the body from the external environment not only microbes and toxins, but also medicines and cosmetics. Until now, bioengineers have not been able to grow skin with an epidermis that provides this barrier function. In addition, skin flaps grown from biopsy samples are too expensive and difficult to produce for large-scale screening.

A new study, the results of which are published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, describes the use of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to produce an unlimited number of keratinocytes – the predominant type of cells in the outer layer of the skin, indistinguishable from keratinocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells or obtained by biopsy. These keratinocytes were used to produce a three-dimensional equivalent of the epidermis, functioning well in environments with high and low humidity.

Comparison of epidermis equivalents obtained from iPSCs, as well as grown from embryonic stem cells and from biopsy material, did not show a significant difference in their structural or functional properties compared to the outer layer of normal human skin.

The possibility of obtaining an unlimited number of genetically identical samples can be used to study diseases in which the barrier function of the skin is disrupted due to mutations in genes involved in the formation of the skin, such as ichthyosis (with this disease, the skin becomes similar to fish scales), or atopic dermatitis - a chronic genetically determined inflammatory skin lesion of an allergic nature.

This method can be used to grow a large number of lab-grown human epidermal equivalents for pre-testing of medicines and cosmetics. Human epidermis equivalents representing different skin types can also be useful in the study of various skin diseases and the effectiveness of drugs in various skin diseases and in different populations.

The article by Anastasia Petrova et al. 3D in vitro model of a functional epidermal permeability barrier from hESC and iPSC is published in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials
based on the materials of King's College London: Skin layer grown in lab could replace animal testing.

29.04.2014