The Capacity of Wharton's Jelly to Prolong the Survival of Skin Tissues ex vivo

Developing models for preclinical examinations to avoid using animals has been increasing worldwide. Besides creating cell lines or tissues specialized for in vitro testing, biological wastes are also utilized as a potential tissue source for ex vivo examinations. In particular, the human skin from plastic surgery can be an ideal source of skin models to evaluate the effectiveness of some biological products with the advantage of possessing a natural finished skin structure. However, to maintain skin viability under laboratory conditions, it is necessary to establish ex vivo skin tissue nurturing conditions. Therefore, we tested conditions for culturing skin tissue outside the body using the air-liquid interface tissue culture method and Wharton's Jelly (WJ) from the umbilical cords and nutrient medium. The results showed that the skin tissue could maintain and survive in the air-liquid interface tissue culture conditions. Results from observations showed that the size and color of skin tissues were consistent until ten days and 15 days, when skin tissues were maintained in the nutrient media or nutrient media combined with WJ, respectively. Additionally, the histological analysis indicated that cultured skin tissues could maintain their normal structure of three epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis layers; the epidermis started to separate from the dermis after ten days or 15 days, depending on whether skin tissues were maintained in nutrient media only or nutrient media combined with WJ, respectively. Moreover, hair follicles, melanocytes, and keratinocytes were observed at their right location and typical structure. These results indicated that skin could survive in a nutrient medium for ten days, particularly prolonged over 15 days in a combination of nutrient medium and WJ. These results indicated the potential to maintain skin tissue ex vivo and use it for different tests under laboratory conditions.