Organ Culture of Adult Human Skin; Effect of Culture Temperature

Abstract

In the organ culture of adult human skin, long‐term preservation of cultured epidermis was obtained when the culture temperature was shifted from 37°C to 32°C. The epidermal cell kinetics were compared for both culture temperatures using the findings of mitotic rate, mitotic distribution and autoradiographic labelling index with tritiated‐thymidine (3H‐TdR). As a result, it appeared that a lowered culture temperature controlled the cell cycle in vitro to maintain long‐term, active epidermal proliferation.