Spontaneous evolution of human skin fibroblasts into wound-healing keratinocyte-like cells.

ABSTRACT: Producing keratinocyte cells (KCs) in large scale is difficult due to their slow proliferation, disabling their use as seed cells for skin regeneration and wound healing. Cell reprogramming is a promising inducer-based approach to KC production but only reaches very low cellular conversion. Here we reported a unique cellular conversion phenomenon, where human skin fibroblasts (FBs) were spontaneously converted into keratinocyte-like cells (KLCs) over the time without using any inducers. Methods: FBs were routinely cultured for more than 120 days in regular culture medium. Characteristics of KLCs were checked at the molecular and cellular level. Then the functionality and safety of the KLCs were verified by wound healing and tumorigenicity assay, respectively. To identify the mechani

SUBMITTER: Zhang F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6691578 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature