Case Western Reserve University biologists generating human skin equivalents in lab cultures have received a patent for new technology that has the potential to regenerate skin for medical uses and for testing new skin care products.

The patent, issued to Arnold Caplan, professor of biology, and Michael Sorrell, a senior research associate, evolved from more than 20 years of research in the Case College of Arts and Sciences department of biology and helps Case further its goal to license technology developed in university labs.

The biologists' research consists of uniquely layering the different cells found in the reticular dermis and papillary layers of the skin. The full dermis is the underlying layer of skin that is the matrix or structural support to the outer epidermis. It contains blood vessels, nerve endings, sweat glands, hair follicles and a specialized matrix that is the bulk of the dermis. The papillary layer is found between the epidermis, or outermost layer of skin, and the reticular dermis and sends instructions-like to repair damaged skin or ward off infections-to the epidermis.

"The patent involves putting together a layer of papillary cells and reticular cells to try to mimic the natural localization of these cells so that we can study how these cells interact with the epithelial cells," Caplan said.

Stem cells, which can grow into different parts of the body, also are used in the cultures to refabricate skin.
One problem the biologists have encountered in their research is that when dermal cells are taken from people between the ages of 60 to 80 years old and are refabricated in a Petri dish into a skin equivalent, the outcome results in fetal skin.

How to develop adult skin equivalents has driven research in Caplan's lab at Case and, in 1995, led to the start of ongoing collaboration of basic research science with the research division of L'Oreal of Paris, one of the world's major skin care corporations. The patent, "Skin Regeneration Using Mesenchymal Stem Cells," developed from experiments in the 1990s that preceded the L'Oreal collaboration.

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