Vascularization and engraftment of a human skin substitute using circulating progenitor cell-derived endothelial cells

FASEB J. 2006 Aug;20(10):1739-41. doi: 10.1096/fj.05-5682fje. Epub 2006 Jun 28.

Abstract

We seeded tissue engineered human skin substitutes with endothelial cells (EC) differentiated in vitro from progenitors from umbilical cord blood (CB-EC) or adult peripheral blood (AB-EC), comparing the results to previous work using cultured human umbilical vein EC (HUVEC) with or without Bcl-2 transduction. Vascularized skin substitutes were prepared by seeding Bcl-2-transduced or nontransduced HUVEC, CB-EC, or AB-EC on the deep surface of decellularized human dermis following keratinocyte coverage of the epidermal surface. These skin substitutes were transplanted onto C.B-17 SCID/beige mice receiving systemic rapamycin or vehicle control and were analyzed 21 d later. CB-EC and Bcl-2-HUVEC formed more human EC-lined vessels than AB-EC or control HUVEC; CB-EC, Bcl-2-HUVEC, and AB-EC but not control HUVEC promoted ingrowth of mouse EC-lined vessels. Bcl-2 transduction increased the number of human and mouse EC-lined vessels in grafts seeded with HUVEC but not with CB-EC or AB-EC. Both CB-EC and AB-EC-induced microvessels became invested by smooth muscle cell-specific alpha-actin-positive mural cells, indicative of maturation. Rapamycin inhibited ingrowth of mouse EC-lined vessels but did not inhibit formation of human EC-lined vessels. We conclude that EC differentiated from circulating progenitors can be utilized to vascularize human skin substitutes even in the setting of compromised host angiogenesis/vasculogenesis.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Endothelial Cells / cytology
  • Endothelium, Vascular / cytology
  • Humans
  • Mice
  • Mice, SCID
  • Neovascularization, Physiologic*
  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / genetics
  • Sirolimus / pharmacology
  • Skin, Artificial*
  • Stem Cells / cytology
  • Tissue Engineering / methods*
  • Transduction, Genetic
  • Transplantation, Heterologous

Substances

  • Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2
  • Sirolimus