Epidermal lipid metabolism of cultured skin substitutes during healing of full-thickness wounds in athymic mice.

Cultured epidermal keratinocytes provide an abundant supply of biologic material for wound treatment. Because restoration of barrier function is a definitive criterion for efficacy of wound closure and depends on the lipids present in the epidermis, we analyzed lipid composition of the epidermis in cultured skin substitutes in vitro and after grafting to athymic mice. The cultured skin substitutes were prepared from human keratinocytes and fibroblasts attached to collagen-glycosaminoglycan substrates. After 14 days of incubation, cultured skin substitutes were grafted orthotopically onto full-thickness wounds in athymic mice. Samples for lipid analysis were collected after 14 and 34 days of in vitro incubation, and 3 weeks and 4 months after grafting. Both in vitro samples show disproportions in epidermal lipid profile as compared with the native human epidermis, i.e., a low amount of phospholipids (indicating imbalance in proliferation and differentiation); a large excess of triglycerides (storage lipids); and low levels of free fatty acids, gluco-sphingolipids, cholesterol sulfate, and ceramides-suggesting abnormal composition of stratum corneum barrier lipids. Fatty acid analysis of cultured skin substitutes in vitro revealed insufficient uptake of linoleic acid, which resulted in increased synthesis of and substitution with monounsaturated fatty acids, mainly oleic acid. These abnormalities were partially corrected by 3 weeks after grafting; and 4 months after grafting, all epidermal lipids, with some minor exceptions, were synthesized in proportions very similar to human epidermis. Results of this study show that grafting of cultured skin substitutes to a physiologic host permits the recovery of lipid in proportion to that required for barrier formation in normal human epidermis.