Development of a tissue-engineered skin model with epidermal, dermal and hypodermal components

Tissue-engineered models of skin have evolved over the past 50 years, have successfully been translated to clinical use and continue to be improved using new technologies. However, very few of these constructs incorporate a hypodermal component. The hypodermis is critical to skin homeostasis, skin function and many skin diseases, but our understanding of the hypodermis is limited in comparison to our knowledge of the epidermis and dermis, in part due to a lack of suitable in vitro models.

The purpose of this study was to develop and characterise a tissue-engineered model of skin consisting of epidermal, dermal and hypodermal layers, namely a trilayer skin model. Models were produced by culturing human keratinocytes and fibroblasts on decellularised human dermis in combination with explanted human adipose tissue.

Bilayer models of skin, comprising of an epidermis and dermis, had a thicker epidermal component compared to trilayer models but exhibited similar cytokeratin expression patterns (AE1/AE3 and cytokeratin 14). Addition of adipose tissue improved the appearance of the dermal-epidermal junction, increased the number of rete ridge-like features and cells maintained similar levels of proliferation (Ki-67) compared to native tissues over 28 days in culture.

This technique enabled us to create a physiologically relevant model of human skin with representative morphology across the hypodermis, dermis and epidermis. This model maintained native extracellular matrix architecture, contained a heterogeneous population of cells and has the potential to be applied to a range of different applications where research questions require the inclusion of a hypodermis.