Rho kinase inhibitor Y-27632 prolongs the life span of adult human keratinocytes, enhances skin equivalent development, and facilitates lentiviral transduction.

ABSTRACT: The use of tissue-engineered human skin equivalents (HSE) for fundamental research and industrial application requires the expansion of keratinocytes from a limited number of skin biopsies donated by adult healthy volunteers or patients. A pharmacological inhibitor of Rho-associated protein kinases, Y-27632, was recently reported to immortalize neonatal human foreskin keratinocytes. Here, we investigated the potential use of Y-27632 to expand human adult keratinocytes and evaluated its effects on HSE development and in vitro gene delivery assays. Y-27632 was found to significantly increase the life span of human adult keratinocytes (up to five to eight passages). The epidermal morphology of HSEs generated from high-passage, Y-27632-treated keratinocytes resembled the native epidermis and w

SUBMITTER: van den Bogaard EH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3432898 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature