Barrier properties of an N/TERT-based human skin equivalent

V van Drongelen, MO Danso, A Mulder… - … Engineering Part A, 2014 - liebertpub.com
V van Drongelen, MO Danso, A Mulder, A Mieremet, J van Smeden, JA Bouwstra…
Tissue Engineering Part A, 2014liebertpub.com
Human skin equivalents (HSEs) can be considered a valuable tool to study aspects of
human skin, including the skin barrier, or to perform chemical or toxicological screenings.
HSEs are three-dimensional skin models that are usually established using primary
keratinocytes and closely mimic human skin. The use of primary keratinocytes has several
drawbacks, including a limited in vitro life span and large donor–donor variation. This makes
them less favorable for in vitro toxicity screenings. Usage of an established keratinocyte cell …
Human skin equivalents (HSEs) can be considered a valuable tool to study aspects of human skin, including the skin barrier, or to perform chemical or toxicological screenings. HSEs are three-dimensional skin models that are usually established using primary keratinocytes and closely mimic human skin. The use of primary keratinocytes has several drawbacks, including a limited in vitro life span and large donor–donor variation. This makes them less favorable for in vitro toxicity screenings. Usage of an established keratinocyte cell line circumvents these drawbacks and enables the generation of easy-to-generate and reproducible HSEs, which can be used for pharmacological and/or toxicological screenings. For such screenings, a proper barrier function is required. In this study, we investigated the barrier properties of HSEs established with the keratinocyte cell line N/TERT (N-HSEs). N-HSEs showed comparable tissue morphology and expression of several epidermal proteins compared with HSEs established with primary keratinocytes. Our results clearly demonstrate that N-HSEs not only contain several stratum corneum (SC) barrier properties similar to HSEs, including the presence of the long periodicity phase and a comparable SC permeability, but also show some differences in lipid composition. Nonetheless, the similarities in barrier properties makes N/TERT cells a promising alternative for primary keratinocytes to generate HSEs.
Mary Ann Liebert