Culture of Adult Human Skin:in vitro Growth and Keratinization of Epidermal Cells

Abstract

ADULT human skin has been successfully cultured by several methods, but progress has been slow because the cells in the outgrowth have never been satisfactorily identified. Light microscopy has shown that fibroblasts grown on glass surfaces may assume a pavement-like appearance and mimic the growth pattern of epithelial cells¹. To avoid this, several investigators have attempted to eliminate fibroblasts from growing cultures^1–4. In none of these experiments was it conclusively shown that growing cells are epithelial and undergo keratinization, although these assumptions appear to be valid.