Current procedures used for skin injury reepithelization have yet to improve. At present, stem cell-based therapies provide great potential in repairing different damaged tissues due to the multipotent character of these cells. | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2016) 40: 1111-1120 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article Human adipose-derived stem cells differentiation into epidermal cells and interaction with human keratinocytes in coculture 1 1 1 Alexandra GASPAR , Daniel CONSTANTIN , Ana-Maria SECIU , 1 1, 2 Lucia MOLDOVAN , Oana CRACIUNESCU *, Elena GANEA 1 Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, National Institute of Research and Development for Biological Sciences, Bucharest, Romania 2 Department of Protein Folding, Institute of Biochemistry of the Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania Received: Accepted/Published Online: Final Version: Abstract: Current procedures used for skin injury reepithelization have yet to improve. At present, stem cell-based therapies provide great potential in repairing different damaged tissues due to the multipotent character of these cells. This study aimed to investigate the in vitro differentiation capacity of human adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) into epidermal cells and to evaluate their interaction with HaCaT keratinocytes in coculture experimental models that mimicked the living environment of human skin. The mesenchymal phenotype of isolated stem cells was indicated by their spindle-shaped morphology and the expression of specific surface markers CD73, CD90, and CD105. After 21 days of cultivation in specific induction medium, the epidermal keratinocyte phenotype of differentiated ASCs was demonstrated by the expression of cytokeratin 19 and involucrin markers, at both the protein and gene level. Significant (P < ) proliferation of ASCs and HaCaT cells was recorded by an MTT assay in a Transwell system coculture as compared with control cells. Flow cytometry of HaCaT-ASC direct coculture showed a significant (P < ) increase in DNA content in the G2/M and S phases and a decrease in the G0/G1 phase. All these data demonstrated that ASCs
