Name: a simplified and efficient method to isolate primary human keratinocytes from adult skin tissue
Uploaded: 2018-08-25T13:00:00
Description: Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Simplified and Efficient Method to Isolate Primary Human Keratinocytes from Adult Skin Tissue at JoVE.com

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2017YFA0104604), the General Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC, 81772093), the Science and Technology Development Program of Suzhou (ZXL2015128), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK20161241), and a Shandong Taishan Scholar Award (tshw201502065).

Human tissues used in this protocol have been handled according to the guidelines of the Institution&#39;s human research ethics committee (NO.2015120401, date: May 12, 2015).
1. Preparations
<ol>
	<li>Collect fresh adult abdominal skin tissues discarded from plastic surgery at the hospital in a 50-mL tube with 10 mL of ice-cold Dulbecco&#39;s modified Eagle medium (DMEM). The specimen can be kept at 4 &#176;C for up to 72 h without significantly affecting the cell viability.</li>
	<li>Prepa...

<ol>
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Cultured primary HKCs have been widely utilized to treat wounds in clinics for more than three decades and, since that time, it has been always important to efficiently obtain sufficient numbers of cells for clinical applications in a timely manner. Therefore, in practice, the conventional isolation method, which requires the separation of the epidermis from the dermis, makes it difficult to meet these demands, due to the low yield of cells and the low ability to passage adult cells. Here, we describe a new simple method...

The goal was to develop a simple and efficient protocol to isolate primary human keratinocytes (HKCs) from adult tissues, especially for clinical applications. Skin epidermal stem cells, localized in the basal layer of the skin, possess a high potential to proliferate and differentiate and provide keratinocytes to maintain the functions of the skin1,2,3,4. HKCs isolated from skin tissues are widely used for skin tissue engineering and regeneration purposes, especially in the repair of damaged skin and in gene therapy for clinical applications5,6. The key issue for HKC-based applications is to efficiently isolate and expand large numbers of HKCs with high potential in vitro7,8. Although various research groups have developed methods to produce cultures of stem-like HKCs, these methods are sometimes time-consuming and complicated to perform and have other limitations, such as low cell yields and being limited by the type of skin specimen used9. For instance, the traditional method to isolate HKCs from skin tissues involves a two-step enzymatic digestion with a separation of the epidermis from the dermis6. That method usually works well for neonatal tissues, but it becomes very difficult when used to isolate cells from adult tissues.
Y-27632, an inhibitor of Rho-associated protein kinase (ROCK), has been reported to significantly enhance the efficiency of epidermal stem cell isolation and colony growth10,11,12. In a previous study, we discovered that Y-27632 facilitates the clonal growth of epidermal cells but reduces the yield of dermal cells by differentially controlling the expression of adhesion molecules13. We also established a new conditioned inoculation medium, called G-medium, which supports the growth and yield of primary epidermal cells. By combining G-medium with Y-27632, this novel method can spontaneously separate epidermal and dermal cells after enzyme digestion, thus removing the step of epidermis-dermis separation13,14. Based on previous reports, we now describe the detailed procedure of this new method to isolate HKCs from adult skin tissue.

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="width:1344px;" width="1342">
	<tbody>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;width:263px;">Countess automated cell counter</td>
			<td style="width:291px;">Invitrogen Inc.&#160;</td>
			<td style="width:264px;">C10227</td>
			<td style="width:527px;">Automatic cell counting&#160;</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">CO2 Incubator</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>51026333</td>
			<td>For cell incubating</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Sorvall ST 16R Centrifuge</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>75004380</td>
			<td>Cell centrifuge</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Constant Temperature Shaker</td>
			<td>Shanghai Boxun</td>
			<td>150036</td>
			<td>For water bath</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Electronic Scale</td>
			<td>Harbin Zhonghui</td>
			<td>1171193</td>
			<td>For tissue weighing</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Cell Culture Dish</td>
			<td>Eppendorf</td>
			<td>30702115</td>
			<td>For cell culture</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">50ml Centrifuge Tube</td>
			<td>KIRGEN</td>
			<td>171003</td>
			<td>For cell centrifuge</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Cell Strainer</td>
			<td>Corning incorporated</td>
			<td>431792</td>
			<td>Cell filtration</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Phosphate buffered solution</td>
			<td>Solarbio Life Science&#160;</td>
			<td>P1020-500</td>
			<td>Washing solution</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">DMEM</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>C11995500</td>
			<td>Component of neutralization medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Defined K-SFM</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>10785-012</td>
			<td>Epidermal cells culture medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Penicillin Streptomycin</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>15140-122</td>
			<td>Antibiotics</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Fetal Bovine Serum</td>
			<td>Biological Industries</td>
			<td>04-001-1AC5</td>
			<td>Component of neutralization medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">0.05% Trypsin</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>25300-062</td>
			<td>For HKC dissociation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">0.25% Trypsin&#160;</td>
			<td>Beijing Solarbio Science &#38; Technology</td>
			<td>T1350-100</td>
			<td>For HKC dissociation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Coating Matrix Kit</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>R-011-K</td>
			<td>For coating matrix</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Dispase</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>17105-041</td>
			<td>For HKC isolation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Collagenase Type I</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>17100-017</td>
			<td>For HKC isolation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Deoxyribonuclease I</td>
			<td>Sigma</td>
			<td>9003-98-9</td>
			<td>For HKC isolation</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">F12 Nutrient Mix, Hams</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>31765035</td>
			<td>Component of G-medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">B27 Supplement</td>
			<td>Life Technologies</td>
			<td>17504044</td>
			<td>Growth factor in G-medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">FGF-2 Millipore</td>
			<td>Merck Biosciences</td>
			<td>341595</td>
			<td>Growth factor in G-medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Y-27632</td>
			<td>Sigma-Aldrich</td>
			<td>Y0503</td>
			<td>ROCK inhibitor</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Fungizone</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>15290026</td>
			<td>Preparation for G-medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">EGF Recombinant Human Protein</td>
			<td>Gibco</td>
			<td>PHG0311</td>
			<td>Growth factor in G-medium</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Cell Counting Kit-8</td>
			<td>Thermo Scientific</td>
			<td>NC9864731</td>
			<td>cell proliferation and cytotoxicity assays</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Mouse Anti-Human Cytokeratin5</td>
			<td>Hewlett-Packard Development Company</td>
			<td>MA-20142</td>
			<td>For immunofluorescence staining to check differentiation marker of HKCs</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Rabbit Anti-Human Loricrin</td>
			<td>Covance</td>
			<td>PRB-145p</td>
			<td>For immunofluorescence staining to check differentiation marker of HKCs</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Mouse anti-human Vimentin</td>
			<td>Cell Signaling Technology</td>
			<td>3390</td>
			<td>For immunofluorescence staining of dermal fibroblasts</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;">Integrin &#945;6(GOH3)</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz&#160;</td>
			<td>SC-19622</td>
			<td>flow cytometry analysis of HKCs</td>
		</tr>
		<tr height="23">
			<td height="23" style="height:23px;width:263px;">Rat IgG2a FITC</td>
			<td>Santa Cruz&#160;</td>
			<td>SC-2831</td>
			<td>negative control antibody of &#945;6-integrin&#160; in flow cytometry analysis&#160;</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

a simplified and efficient method to isolate primary human keratinocytes from adult skin tissue

Primary human keratinocytes isolated from fresh skin tissues and their expansion in vitro have been widely used for laboratory research and for clinical applications. The conventional isolation method of human keratinocytes involves a two-step sequential enzymatic digestion procedure, which has been proven to be inefficient in generating primary cells from adult tissues due to the low cell recovery rate and reduced cell viability. We recently reported an advanced method to isolate human primary epidermal progenitor cells from skin tissues that utilizes the Rho kinase inhibitor Y-27632 in the medium. Compared with the traditional protocol, this new method is simpler, easier, and less time-consuming, and increases epithelial stem cell yield and enhances their stem cell characteristics. Moreover, the new methodology does not require the separation of the epidermis from the dermis, and, therefore, is suitable for isolating cells from different types of adult tissues. This new isolation method overcomes the major shortcomings of conventional methods and is more suitable for producing large numbers of epidermal cells with high potency both for laboratory and for clinical applications. Here, we describe the new method in detail.

Schematic diagrams of the new method (Figure 1A) and the conventional method (Figure 1B) are presented in Figure 1. The conventional method is a two-step digestion, which requires a 2-day procedure. By contrast, the new method is a one-step digestion, which takes around 3 hours to perform. Importantly, the one-step new method can obtain two populations (epidermal and dermal cells) at the same time, w...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about A Simplified and Efficient Method to Isolate Primary Human Keratinocytes from Adult Skin Tissue at JoVE.com

A Simplified and Efficient Method to Isolate Primary Human Keratinocytes from Adult Skin Tissue

Here we present a protocol to efficiently isolate primary human keratinocytes from adult skin tissues. This method simplifies the conventional procedure by using the ROCK Inhibitor Y-27632 in the inoculation medium to spontaneously separate epidermal cells from dermal cells.

Primary human keratinocytes isolated from fresh skin tissues and their expansion in vitro have been widely used for laboratory research and for clinical ...

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