Generation of Genetically Modified Organotypic Skin Cultures Using Devitalized Human Dermis

Summary

The goal of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and detailed protocol on how to generate genetically modified human organotypic skin from epidermal keratinocytes and devitalized human dermis.

Abstract

Organotypic cultures allow the reconstitution of a 3D environment critical for cell-cell contact and cell-matrix interactions which mimics the function and physiology of their in vivo tissue counterparts. This is exemplified by organotypic skin cultures which faithfully recapitulates the epidermal differentiation and stratification program. Primary human epidermal keratinocytes are genetically manipulable through retroviruses where genes can be easily overexpressed or knocked down. These genetically modified keratinocytes can then be used to regenerate human epidermis in organotypic skin cultures providing a powerful model to study genetic pathways impacting epidermal growth, differentiation, and disease progression. The protocols presented here describe methods to prepare devitalized human dermis as well as to genetically manipulate primary human keratinocytes in order to generate organotypic skin cultures. Regenerated human skin can be used in downstream applications such as gene expression profiling, immunostaining, and chromatin immunoprecipitations followed by high throughput sequencing. Thus, generation of these genetically modified organotypic skin cultures will allow the determination of genes that are critical for maintaining skin homeostasis.

Introduction

The human epidermis is a stratified epithelium that connects to the underlying dermis through an extracellular matrix known as the basement membrane zone.The epidermis not only serves as an impermeable barrier to prevent the loss of moisture but also as a first line of defense to protect the body from foreign and toxic substances¹. The basal layer, which is the deepest layer of the epidermis, contains the epidermal stem and progenitor cells that give rise to the differentiated progeny that form the rest of the epidermis². As epidermal progenitor cells differentiate they migrate upwards to form the first layer of differentiated cells known as the ....

Protocol

The human skin protocol was performed in accordance with the guidelines of the University of California, San Diego’s Research Ethics Committee. Human skin can be obtained from discarded surgical samples or bought from skin banks (skin bank is listed in the Material/Equipment Table). The location where the skin is derived from or age of the donor is not critical to the experiment as long as the basement membrane zone proteins (collagen/laminin) in the dermis are not degraded.

1. Preparation of Devitalized Human Dermis

1. Upon receiving human skin, place the tissue in the tissue culture hood to thaw (~3-5 min).....

Results

The first step in generating organotypic human skin is to remove the epidermis from the dermis. The two week incubation of the skin at 37 °C in 4x pen/strep/PBS should allow the separation of the dermis from the epidermis (Figure 1A). If separating the epidermis and dermis is difficult then place the tissue at 37 °C in 4x pen/strep/PBS for another week and then try peeling again using forceps.

One of the keys to regenerating human epidermis on devitalized dermis is to ensure t.......

Discussion

Genetic manipulation in human skin organotypic cultures offer many advantages to commonly studied 2D cultured cells as well as mouse models. 2D cultures lack the three dimensional cell-cell and cell-extracellular matrix interactions found in intact tissues and organs. Recent studies have also found tremendous differences between 2D and 3D cultured skin cancer cells with the 3D cultured cells showing much more gene expression similarities to primary human skin tumors¹⁶. Human organotypic skin cultures also have.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Human skin	New York Firefighters Skin Bank	http://www.cornellsurgery.org/pro/services/burn-surgery/skin-bank.html
PEN/STREP	GIBCO	15140-122
amphotropic phoenix cell lines	ATCC	CRL-3213
FUGENE 6 transfection reagent	Promega	E2691
Keratinocyte Media (KCSFM)	Life Technologies	17005042
DMEM	GIBCO	11995
Ham's F12	Cambrex	12-615F
FBS	GIBCO	10437-028
Adenine	Sigma	A-9795
Cholera Toxin	Sigma	C-8052
Hydrocortisone	Calbiochem	3896
Insulin	Sigma	I-1882
EGF	Invitrogen	13247-051
Transferrin	Sigma	T-0665
Ciprofloxacin Hydrochloride	Serologicals	89-001-1
cautery	Bovie Medical Corporation	AA01
Matrigel	Corning	354234
Keratin 1 antibody	Biolegend	PRB-149P
square pegs	Arts and crafts stores
human neonatal keratinocytes	ATCC	PCS-200-010
human neonatal keratinocytes	Cell Applications	102K-05n
MSCV retroviral vector	Clontech	634401
LZRS retroviral vector	Addgene
pSuper.Retro.Puro Retroviral vector	Oligoengine	VEC-PRT-0002
hexadimethrine bromide	Sigma	H9268-5G