Tissue Biology Research Unit, Department of Surgery, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.
J Invest Dermatol. 2013 Feb;133(2):316-24. doi: 10.1038/jid.2012.290. Epub 2012 Sep 13.
Recently, Biedermann et al. (2010) have demonstrated that human eccrine sweat gland cells can develop a multilayered epidermis. The question still remains whether these cells can fulfill exclusive and very specific functional properties of epidermal keratinocytes, such as the incorporation of melanin, a feature absent in sweat gland cells. We added human melanocytes to eccrine sweat gland cells to let them develop into an epidermal analog in vivo. The interaction between melanocytes and sweat gland-derived keratinocytes was investigated. The following results were gained: (1) macroscopically, a pigmentation of the substitutes was seen 2-3 weeks after transplantation; (2) we confirmed the development of a multilayered, stratified epidermis with melanocytes distributed evenly throughout the basal layer; (3) melanocytic dendrites projected to suprabasal layers; and (4) melanin was observed to be integrated into former eccrine sweat gland cells. These skin substitutes were similar or equal to skin substitutes cultured from human epidermal keratinocytes. The only differences observed were a delay in pigmentation and less melanin uptake. These data suggest that eccrine sweat gland cells can form a functional epidermal melanin unit, thereby providing striking evidence that they can assume one of the most characteristic keratinocyte properties.
最近，Biedermann 等人（2010 年）已经证明人类的外泌汗腺细胞可以发育成多层表皮。但这些细胞是否能够具备表皮角质形成细胞特有的、非常特殊的功能特性，如黑色素的摄取，仍然是个问题。汗腺细胞中并不存在黑色素。我们将人类黑素细胞添加到外泌汗腺细胞中，使它们在体内发育成表皮类似物。我们研究了黑素细胞和外分泌腺来源的角质形成细胞之间的相互作用。结果如下：（1）移植后 2-3 周，替代物出现色素沉着；（2）我们证实了具有黑素细胞均匀分布于基底层的多层、分层表皮的发育；（3）黑素细胞树突向棘层上层突出；（4）观察到黑色素整合到原来的外分泌腺细胞中。这些皮肤替代物与从人表皮角质形成细胞培养的皮肤替代物相似或相同。唯一观察到的差异是色素沉着延迟和黑色素摄取减少。这些数据表明，外分泌汗腺细胞可以形成具有功能的表皮黑色素单位，从而提供了令人信服的证据，证明它们可以获得角质形成细胞的最典型特性之一。
