Organ culture of developing mouse skin and its application for molecular mechanistic studies of morphogenesis

In this chapter, we describe an organ culture method that allows skin tissues isolated from 12.5- or 13.5-d postcoitus mouse embryos to develop in a manner histologically and temporally similar to the process in vivo. In this culture system, epidermal growth factor specifically and completely inhibited the hair follicle formation with marginal effects on interfollicular epidermis. Using an adenovirus vector, one can transduce a gene into the epidermal and dermal cell layers without appreciable toxicity.