Morphogenesis of Chimeric Hair Follicles in Engineered Skin Substitutes With Human Keratinocytes and Murine Dermal Papilla Cells

The study demonstrated that engineered skin substitutes (ESS) could generate chimeric hair follicles when murine dermal papilla cells (mDPC) were used, but not with human dermal papilla cells (hDPC) or human fibroblasts (hF). The ESS were prepared with collagen-glycosaminoglycan scaffolds and human epidermal keratinocytes (hK), some of which were genetically modified to overexpress stabilized β-catenin. After grafting onto athymic mice and evaluating for 6 weeks, neofollicles were observed only in ESS containing mDPC, regardless of the genetic modification of hK. The presence of mDPC was confirmed by GFP fluorescence in the dermal papillae of the follicular structures. Additionally, significant increases in LEF1, WNT10A, and WNT10B were associated with the presence of neofollicles, supporting the model for generating chimeric hair in ESS.