A New In Vitro Culture System to Produce a Fully Differentiated Epidermis from Human Hair Follicle Outer Root Sheath Cells

The study described a new in vitro culture method to produce a fully differentiated epidermis from human hair follicle outer root sheath cells. By implanting hair follicles into dermal equivalents and raising the culture to the air-liquid interface, researchers were able to achieve a multilayered epithelium that closely resembled normal interfollicular epidermis. This included the expression of the 67 kDa keratin, a marker of terminally differentiated keratinocytes, which was not present in previous culture systems. The findings demonstrated that under specific conditions, outer root sheath cells could be modulated to express an interfollicular epidermal phenotype similar to that observed during wound healing in vivo.