In vitro culture of disaggregated rabbit keratinocytes

A technique is described for the culture of disaggregated rabbit keratinocytes and the production of confluent sheets of immunologically pure keratinocytes suitable for use in transplantation studies. The benefits of various feeder layers, nutrients and growth hormones were examined by the use of paired controls. The ability of the cultured keratinocyte sheets to be removed from the culture vessel intact and survive as viable autografts was demonstrated, thus establishing a new animal model for the investigation of allograft rejection responses to cultured keratinocytes. The benefits of using the rabbit model for such studies and the advantages of this culture technique over a previously described method of rabbit keratinocyte cell culture are discussed.