Cultured human skin: Heterotransplantation

We have reported that human skin, cultured in a controlled environment system (steady state), yields epidermis-like growth from adult donor split thickness specimens. A procedure for transplantation of such cellular outgrowths to athymic nude mice for functional and morphologic evaluations is reported. Successful transplants were definitively scored by the presence of histologic epidermal markers and human glucose phosphate isomerase. We suggest that the transplantation procedures reported here may contribute to the knowledge required for the use of autologous cultured skin in patients with large skin wounds.