A Simplified and Efficient Method to Isolate Primary Human Keratinocytes from Adult Skin Tissue

Summary

Here we present a protocol to efficiently isolate primary human keratinocytes from adult skin tissues. This method simplifies the conventional procedure by using the ROCK Inhibitor Y-27632 in the inoculation medium to spontaneously separate epidermal cells from dermal cells.

Abstract

Primary human keratinocytes isolated from fresh skin tissues and their expansion in vitro have been widely used for laboratory research and for clinical applications. The conventional isolation method of human keratinocytes involves a two-step sequential enzymatic digestion procedure, which has been proven to be inefficient in generating primary cells from adult tissues due to the low cell recovery rate and reduced cell viability. We recently reported an advanced method to isolate human primary epidermal progenitor cells from skin tissues that utilizes the Rho kinase inhibitor Y-27632 in the medium. Compared with the traditional protocol, this new method is simpler, easier, and less time-consuming, and increases epithelial stem cell yield and enhances their stem cell characteristics. Moreover, the new methodology does not require the separation of the epidermis from the dermis, and, therefore, is suitable for isolating cells from different types of adult tissues. This new isolation method overcomes the major shortcomings of conventional methods and is more suitable for producing large numbers of epidermal cells with high potency both for laboratory and for clinical applications. Here, we describe the new method in detail.

Introduction

The goal was to develop a simple and efficient protocol to isolate primary human keratinocytes (HKCs) from adult tissues, especially for clinical applications. Skin epidermal stem cells, localized in the basal layer of the skin, possess a high potential to proliferate and differentiate and provide keratinocytes to maintain the functions of the skin^1,2,3,4. HKCs isolated from skin tissues are widely used for skin tissue engineering and regeneration purposes, especially in the repair of damaged skin and in gene therapy for clinical application....

Protocol

Human tissues used in this protocol have been handled according to the guidelines of the Institution's human research ethics committee (NO.2015120401, date: May 12, 2015).

1. Preparations

1. Collect fresh adult abdominal skin tissues discarded from plastic surgery at the hospital in a 50-mL tube with 10 mL of ice-cold Dulbecco's modified Eagle medium (DMEM). The specimen can be kept at 4 °C for up to 72 h without significantly affecting the cell viability.
2. Prepare the reagents and culture medium as described below.
   1. Add 1 mL of penicillin (100 U/mL) and streptomycin (100 mg/L) to 50 mL of phosphate....

Results

Schematic diagrams of the new method (Figure 1A) and the conventional method (Figure 1B) are presented in Figure 1. The conventional method is a two-step digestion, which requires a 2-day procedure. By contrast, the new method is a one-step digestion, which takes around 3 hours to perform. Importantly, the one-step new method can obtain two populations (epidermal and dermal cells) at the same time, w.......

Discussion

Cultured primary HKCs have been widely utilized to treat wounds in clinics for more than three decades and, since that time, it has been always important to efficiently obtain sufficient numbers of cells for clinical applications in a timely manner. Therefore, in practice, the conventional isolation method, which requires the separation of the epidermis from the dermis, makes it difficult to meet these demands, due to the low yield of cells and the low ability to passage adult cells. Here, we describe a new simple method.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Countess automated cell counter	Invitrogen Inc.	C10227	Automatic cell counting
CO2 Incubator	Thermo Scientific	51026333	For cell incubating
Sorvall ST 16R Centrifuge	Thermo Scientific	75004380	Cell centrifuge
Constant Temperature Shaker	Shanghai Boxun	150036	For water bath
Electronic Scale	Harbin Zhonghui	1171193	For tissue weighing
Cell Culture Dish	Eppendorf	30702115	For cell culture
50ml Centrifuge Tube	KIRGEN	171003	For cell centrifuge
Cell Strainer	Corning incorporated	431792	Cell filtration
Phosphate buffered solution	Solarbio Life Science	P1020-500	Washing solution
DMEM	Thermo Scientific	C11995500	Component of neutralization medium
Defined K-SFM	Life Technologies	10785-012	Epidermal cells culture medium
Penicillin Streptomycin	Thermo Scientific	15140-122	Antibiotics
Fetal Bovine Serum	Biological Industries	04-001-1AC5	Component of neutralization medium
0.05% Trypsin	Life Technologies	25300-062	For HKC dissociation
0.25% Trypsin	Beijing Solarbio Science & Technology	T1350-100	For HKC dissociation
Coating Matrix Kit	Life Technologies	R-011-K	For coating matrix
Dispase	Gibco	17105-041	For HKC isolation
Collagenase Type I	Life Technologies	17100-017	For HKC isolation
Deoxyribonuclease I	Sigma	9003-98-9	For HKC isolation
F12 Nutrient Mix, Hams	Life Technologies	31765035	Component of G-medium
B27 Supplement	Life Technologies	17504044	Growth factor in G-medium
FGF-2 Millipore	Merck Biosciences	341595	Growth factor in G-medium
Y-27632	Sigma-Aldrich	Y0503	ROCK inhibitor
Fungizone	Gibco	15290026	Preparation for G-medium
EGF Recombinant Human Protein	Gibco	PHG0311	Growth factor in G-medium
Cell Counting Kit-8	Thermo Scientific	NC9864731	cell proliferation and cytotoxicity assays
Mouse Anti-Human Cytokeratin5	Hewlett-Packard Development Company	MA-20142	For immunofluorescence staining to check differentiation marker of HKCs
Rabbit Anti-Human Loricrin	Covance	PRB-145p	For immunofluorescence staining to check differentiation marker of HKCs
Mouse anti-human Vimentin	Cell Signaling Technology	3390	For immunofluorescence staining of dermal fibroblasts
Integrin α6(GOH3)	Santa Cruz	SC-19622	flow cytometry analysis of HKCs
Rat IgG2a FITC	Santa Cruz	SC-2831	negative control antibody of α6-integrin  in flow cytometry analysis