Maintenance of epidermal structures of psoriatic skin in organ culture.

Abstract

AbstractA method for maintaining the epidermal structures of the normal human and uninvolved and involved psoriatic skin explants in organ culture was described. Skin explants were put in diffusion chambers made of millipore filters, which were then submitted to a roller tube culture at 15 rpm and 32°C. With a gas phase of air + 5% CO2 (phase A), both normal and psoriatic skin explants in culture showed parakeratosis or degeneration of their epidermal cells; with a gas phase of either 50% O2 + 45% N2 + 5% CO2 (phase B) or 95% O2 + 5% CO2 (phase C), they showed neither parakeratosis nor degeneration of epidermal cells and maintained their original structures for 14 days. Autoradiographically, the number of thymidine‐3H (3H‐TdR) labeled epidermal cells in organ culture was greater in involved psoriatic skin explants than in uninvolved ones. Isoproterenol‐stimulated cyclic AMP (cAMP) levels were lower in involved psoriatic epidermis of skin explants than in uninvolved ones, and plasminogen activator activity was higher in the former than in the latter. Addition of dexamethasone normalized the keratinization of the involved psoriatic explant in culture, but addition of dibutyryl cyclic AMP (db cAMP) and dibutyryl cyclic GMP (db cGMP) did not.