Characterization of heterogeneous skin constructs for full thickness skin regeneration in murine wound models

An autologous heterogeneous skin construct (AHSC) has been developed and used clinically as an alternative to traditional skin grafting techniques for treatment of cutaneous defects. AHSC is manufactured from a small piece of healthy skin in a manner that preserves endogenous regenerative cellular populations. To date however, specific cellular and non-cellular contributions of AHSC to the epidermal and dermal layers of closed wounds have not been well characterized given limited clinical opportunity for graft biopsy following wound closure. To address this limitation, a three-part mouse full-thickness excisional wound model was developed for histologic and macroscopic graft tracing. First, fluorescent mouse-derived AHSC (mHSC) was allografted onto non-fluorescent recipient mice to enable macroscopic and histologic time course evaluation of wound closure. Next, mHSC-derived from haired pigmented mice was allografted onto gender- and major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-mismatched athymic nude mouse recipients. Resulting grafts were distinguished from recipient murine skin via immunohistochemistry. Finally, human-derived AHSC (hHSC) was xenografted onto athymic nude mice to evaluate engraftment and hHSC contribution to wound closure. Experiments demonstrated that mHSC and hHSC facilitated wound closure through production of viable, proliferative cellular material and promoted full-thickness skin regeneration, including hair follicles and glands in dermal compartments. This combined macroscopic and histologic approach to tracing AHSC-treated wounds from engraftment to closure enabled robust profiling of regenerated architecture and further understanding of processes underlying AHSC mechanism of action. These models may be applied to a variety of wound care investigations, including those requiring longitudinal assessments of healing and targeted identification of donor and recipient tissue contributions.