Extensive tissue-regenerative capacity of neonatal human keratinocyte stem cells and their progeny
J. Clin. Invest. Amy Li, et al. 113:390 doi:10.1172/JCI19140 [Go to this article.]

Figure 1
KSCs and TA cells regenerate epithelial tissue better than differentiating keratinocytes when cocultured with p7 dermal cells. Comparative in vitro tissue-regenerative ability of UF cells (a–c), KSCs (d–f), TA cells (g–i), and differentiating epidermal cells (j–l) in organotypic cultures obtained from 4.5 × 10⁴ (a, d, g, and j) versus 10⁴ fractionated keratinocytes (c, f, i, and l) plated on DEs containing p7 dermal fibroblasts, all harvested at 14 days. Note the relatively poor tissue-regenerative ability of the differentiating α₆^dim cells (j), which was further decreased by reducing the number of keratinocytes plated to 10⁴ (l). Expression of α₆ integrin (b, e, h, and k) in the cultures corresponding to a, d, g, and j revealed that an integrin-positive basal layer (most polarized in the KSC sheet) was present in the epithelium generated from all fractions as well as total UF keratinocytes. Nuclei were counterstained with propidium iodide. Scale bars: 50 μm.