TY - JOUR
KW - microfluidics
KW - Somatosensory system
KW - Tissue engineering
AU - Jinchul Ahn
AU - Kyungeun Ohk
AU - Jihee Won
AU - Dong-Hee Choi
AU - Yong Hun Jung
AU - Ji Hun Yang
AU - Yesl Jun
AU - Jin-A. Kim
AU - Seok Chung
AU - Sang-Hoon Lee
AB - Reconstruction of skin equivalents with physiologically relevant cellular and matrix architecture is indispensable for basic research and industrial applications. As skin-nerve crosstalk is increasingly recognized as a major element of skin physiological pathology, the development of reliable in vitro models to evaluate the selective communication between epidermal keratinocytes and sensory neurons is being demanded. In this study, we present a three-dimensional innervated epidermal keratinocyte layer as a sensory neuron-epidermal keratinocyte co-culture model on a microfluidic chip using the slope-based air-liquid interfacing culture and spatial compartmentalization. Our co-culture model recapitulates a more organized basal-suprabasal stratification, enhanced barrier function, and physiologically relevant anatomical innervation and demonstrated the feasibility of in situ imaging and functional analysis in a cell-type-specific manner, thereby improving the structural and functional limitations of previous coculture models. This system has the potential as an improved surrogate model and platform for biomedical and pharmaceutical research.
BT - Nature Communications
DA - 2023-03-17
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-37187-4
IS - 1
LA - en
N2 - Reconstruction of skin equivalents with physiologically relevant cellular and matrix architecture is indispensable for basic research and industrial applications. As skin-nerve crosstalk is increasingly recognized as a major element of skin physiological pathology, the development of reliable in vitro models to evaluate the selective communication between epidermal keratinocytes and sensory neurons is being demanded. In this study, we present a three-dimensional innervated epidermal keratinocyte layer as a sensory neuron-epidermal keratinocyte co-culture model on a microfluidic chip using the slope-based air-liquid interfacing culture and spatial compartmentalization. Our co-culture model recapitulates a more organized basal-suprabasal stratification, enhanced barrier function, and physiologically relevant anatomical innervation and demonstrated the feasibility of in situ imaging and functional analysis in a cell-type-specific manner, thereby improving the structural and functional limitations of previous coculture models. This system has the potential as an improved surrogate model and platform for biomedical and pharmaceutical research.
PY - 2023
EP - 1488
T2 - Nature Communications
TI - Modeling of three-dimensional innervated epidermal like-layer in a microfluidic chip-based coculture system
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37187-4
VL - 14
Y2 - 2023-09-15
SN - 2041-1723
ER -