SummaryKeratins K1 and K10 are the most abundant proteins in the upper epidermis where they polymerize to form intermediate filaments (IFs). In addition to their well-established function in providing epidermal stability, K1/K10 (i.e. the dimer between K1 and K10) IFs are supposed to be important for terminal epidermal differentiation and barrier formation. It was previously shown that the imbalanced deletion of one of the partner keratins, K10, disturbed epidermal homoeostasis, although stability was provided by compensatory upregulation of K5/K14, which formed IFs together with the remaining K1. Here, we show that deletion of both partner keratins, K1 and K10, results in lethal postnatal skin fragility in mice. Krt1 2/2 ;Krt10 2/2 mice revealed that K1/K10 IFs are unexpectedly dispensable for epidermal stratification. Although the stratum corneum was less compact and cornified envelope differentiation was impaired, a dye exclusion assay showed that the development of a functional water barrier was surprisingly independent from the presence of K1/K10 IFs. The deletion of K1/K10 was not compensated by any other keratin pair such as the basal epidermal keratins K5/K14, and electron microscopy revealed total absence of IFs in the suprabasal epidermis. Although plakoglobin was unchanged, the expression of the desmosomal proteins desmoplakin, desmocollin 1 and desmoglein 1 were altered and suprabasal desmosomes were smaller in Krt1 2/2 ;Krt10 2/2 than in wild-type epidermis suggesting an involvement of K1/K10 IFs in desmosome dynamics. Furthermore, Krt1 2/2 ;Krt10 2/2 mice showed premature loss of nuclei during epidermal differentiation and lower levels of emerin, lamin A/C and Sun1, revealing a previously unknown function for IFs in maintaining nuclear integrity in the upper epidermis.

In the skin, multipotent keratinocyte stem cells (KSC) are localised in the hair follicle bulge region. Although, KSC can be cultivated and grown in two-dimensional (2D) culture they rapidly lose stem cell markers when isolated from their niche. Currently, there is no KSC culture method available which recapitulates an environment similar to the KSC niche in the hair follicle. Here we describe the successful establishment of an in vitro 3D stem cell culture model developed from clonally growing keratinocyte lines derived from neonatal mice using culture conditions previously established for human keratinocytes. After 20 passages, keratinocyte lines showed a stable ratio of holoclones (stem cells), meroclones (stem and precursor cells) and paraclones (differentiating cells), with approximately 29% holoclones, 54% meroclones and 17% paraclones, and were thus termed keratinocyte stem and precursor cell (KSPC) cultures. In high calcium medium, KSPC cultures grown at the air-liquid interphase differentiated and formed epidermal equivalents. Notably, and in contrast to primary keratinocytes, keratinocytes from KSPC cultures were able to aggregate and form spherical clusters in hanging drops, a characteristic hallmark shared with other stem cell types. Similar to the in vivo situation in the hair follicle bulge, KSPC aggregates also showed low proliferation, down-regulation of keratin 6, absence of keratin 1, and expression of the KSC markers keratin 15, Sox9, NFATc1 and Zfp145. KSPC aggregates therefore provide an optimal in vitro 3D environment for the further characterisation and study of normal and genetically modified KSPC.

Zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) are sequence-specific genome engineering tools with great potential for the development of gene therapies. The achievement of permanent cures through gene therapy requires targeting of stem cells but the effects and/or side effects of ZFN treatment on adult stem cell potency are largely unknown. Keratinocyte stem cells (KSCs) are attractive candidates for the development of gene therapies as their isolation, culture and grafting are well established. We derived KSCs from eGFP-transgenic mice and knocked out eGFP expression by disrupting the open reading frame with specific ZFNs in cell culture. EGFP-negative KSCs were then used as a model system to study the impact of ZFN treatment on stem cell potential. We achieved high gene disruption efficiencies with up to 18% eGFP-negative KSCs. As expected, ZFN cytotoxicity increased with rising ZFN concentrations. However, the ratio of correctly targeted KSCs among total treated cells was similar at different ZFN doses. Most importantly, our in vitro assays showed that ZFN-treated KSCs maintained their stem cell potential. They retained the capacity to both self-renew and form fully differentiated epidermal equivalents in culture. Moreover, they were able to form spherical aggregates in suspension culture, a characteristic hallmark shared with other stem cell types, and they expressed the in vivo KSC markers K15, NFATc1 and Sox9. Our data suggest that the stem cell potential of KSCs is not impaired by highly efficient ZFN treatment.

The ability to grow keratinocyte stem cells (KSCs) in 3D culture is an important step forward for investigating the physiological properties of these cells. In the epidermis, KSCs are subject to various types of mechanical stress. To study the effects of mechanical stress on KSCs, monolayer cultures are limited as the KSCs can only form cell-cell contacts in one plane and to prevent differentiation, KSCs are grown in low (0.05 mM) calcium, which impairs formation of calcium-dependent adhesion structures such as desmosomes. This is in contrast to how KSCs are found in the epidermis in vivo, where they are connected on all sides by other cells, allowing them to form a more organized cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton is essential for transducing mechanical signals between cells, and this cannot be accurately reproduced in monolayer cultures, where the cells do not have the same level of organization or connections. We describe a technique which allows the generation of large numbers of uniformly sized cell aggregates using cultured murine KSCs. These aggregates are produced using physiological calcium concentrations (1.2 mM), allowing the cells within the aggregates to form calcium-dependent contacts with other cells on all sides, resulting in the reorganization of the cytoskeleton, integrating the cells within each aggregate. Within the aggregates, KSCs retain stem cell properties, such as p63 expression, despite the increased calcium concentration and show activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase ERK upon stretch. KSC aggregates can be manipulated further and provide a more physiologically relevant model for studying mechanical signaling in KSCs.