New functional markers of human cutaneous cells in reconstructed skin in vitro

The Laboratoire d'Organogenese Experimentale/LOEX is recognized for its achievements in tissue engineering. Dr Lucie Germain and her team have developed a new human skin substitute used for skin wound management and as a model for in vitro studies. The main objective of my work was to evaluate the functional integrity of this human skin substitute. The originality of my work is the identification and evaluation of new functional markers observed for the first tune in a skin construct. The expression of the vitamin D3 receptor in the epidermal cells and of the enzyme prolyl-4-hydroxylase in the dermal fibroblasts are observations associated with the maintenance of the functional state of cutaneous cells in the skin substitute. Vitamin D3 receptor is also expressed by metastatic humas mammary carcinoma cells seeded on a self-assembled dermal counterpart. Normal and tumoral skin models could be an excellent tool for in vitro pharmaceutical, physiological and toxicological studies.